The Princess of Cleves

Poised between the fading world of chivalric romance and a new psychological realism, Madame de Lafayette’s novel of passion and self-deception marks a turning-point in the history of the novel. When it first appeared—anonymously—in 1678 in the heyday of French classicism, it aroused fierce controversy among critics and readers, in particular for the extraordinary confession which forms the climax of the story.