Madame De Lafayette

The Marquise (1759-1807), born Adrienne de Noailles, shared the same controversial beliefs as her husband, supporting and defending him wholeheartedly despite ongoing political persecution - including the Marquis's exile in an Austrian dungeon and her own imprisonment (and near-execution) by French radicals.

An engaging, highly accessible and informative introduction to French literature from the Middle Ages to the present.

Standing at the critical juncture between traditional romance and early novelistic realism, Zayde is both the swan song of a literary tradition nearly two thousand years old and a harbinger of the modern psychological novel. Zayde unfolds during the long medieval struggle between Christians and Muslims for control of the Iberian Peninsula; Madame de Lafayette (1634-93) takes the reader on a Mediterranean tour typical of classical and seventeenth-century romances—from Catalonia to Cyprus and back again—with battles, prophecies, and shipwrecks dotting the crisscrossed paths of the book’s noble lovers. But where romance was long and episodic, Zayde possesses a magisterial architecture of suspense. Chaste and faithful heroines and heroes are replaced here by characters who are consumed by jealousy and unable to love happily. And, unlike in traditional romance, the reader is no longer simply expected to admire deeds of bravery and virtue, but instead is caught up in intense first-person testimony on the psychology of desire. Unavailable in English for more than two centuries, Zayde reemerges here in Nicholas Paige’s accessible and vibrant translation as a worthy representative of a once popular genre and will be welcomed by readers of French literature and students of the European novelistic tradition.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Princess of Cleves" by Madame de La Fayette. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Constance Wright, whose Silver Collar Boy and A Chance for Glory have won her critical acclaim and a devoted audience here and abroad, has now written a fascinating biography of a patriot’s wife, Madame de Lafayette. With its delicate rendering of a woman’s emotion and a nation’s mood, this book will long be cherished both as a poignant narrative and as an unerring picture of a departed world. Adrienne de Noailles married the handsome Marquis de Lafayette in 1774, when she was fourteen and he but two years older. The marriage had been arranged by her parents, and neither the bride nor bridegroom could be said to have been in love. Yet in 1781, when Lafayette returned from fighting in the American Revolution, she was prepared to risk her life on his behalf. Adrienne’s deep love for Lafayette, and her spiritual devotion to the Church, sustained her during the dark days of the French Revolution and its nightmarish Reign of Terror. Lafayette, who had to flee Paris for his life, was arrested outside France. Then, “with streetwalkers and nuns, pickpockets and duchesses,” Adrienne was confined in a Paris prison. When she finally won her release, after several years of unimaginable horror, she sought and gained permission to live with her husband in his squalid Austrian cell. Constance Wright has drawn an inspiring portrait of a woman whose extraordinary faith places her among the true heroines of history. “This life story, with its background of the French revolutions, the harsh life of the titled captives, the horrors of the executions and the long, frustrating efforts to be free, is one of selfless dedication and pure motives that has a quiet glow.”—Kirkus Review

A critical analysis of the unique friendship between American general George Washington and the young French Marquis de Lafayette describes how their bond resulted in extraordinary success on the battlefield and in diplomatic circles, aided an American victory in the Revolutionary War, and paved the way for the French Revolution. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.