Almost 350 years ago: the first “psychological” novel
The Princess of Clèves is set at the court of the French kings Henri II (r. 1547–1559) and François II (reigned 1559–1560). Politics, wars, and even the tragic death of Henri II after he was struck in the eye by a fragment of a lance during a tournament form only the background to what is now often regarded as the first psychological novel.
At the heart of the story is a girl not yet sixteen, Mademoiselle de Chartres. She is strikingly beautiful, intelligent, virtuous, charming, and immensely wealthy. Her introduction, just a few pages into the novel, is like an arrow released by Cupid: “Il parut alors une beauté à la Cour” (“A beauty then appeared at court”).
And Cupid finds his target.
(to be continued)
A literary revolution
With The Princess of Clèves, Cupid’s arrows seem to send a literary star soaring into the firmament. The novel marks a clear break with the long, elaborate heroic romances that had dominated literature until then, filled with multiple intertwined storylines set in distant lands and remote times. In contrast, the author chooses a shorter form and a style that is precise, restrained, and almost understated.
What is truly revolutionary is the focus on the inner lives of the characters: the story unfolds through their thoughts and, above all, their emotions, particularly those of the protagonist. For this reason, The Princess of Clèves is often considered the first psychological novel.
The author… is a woman
What feels completely natural to us today was anything but in its time: La Princesse de Clèves was written by Madame Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, the Countess de La Fayette, a true masterpiece by a woman author in seventeenth-century Paris, an almost unthinkable idea back then!
The reader is first met with a few words, warning that revealing the author’s name would likely lead the public to judge the work unfairly. Female authorship was not taken seriously at the time, and in many ways that prejudice would persist well into the twentieth century.
And yet, from the moment of its publication, it was an open secret in literary circles that Madame de La Fayette stood behind the novel. She moved at the heart of Parisian intellectual life, hosting her own salon in her elegant hôtel in the fashionable Marais district.
She is also thought to have collaborated closely with two confidants: the Marquise de Sévigné, her cousin by marriage, celebrated for her letters to her daughter, and the Duke de La Rochefoucauld.
A best-seller in the historical collections of KBR
This anonymous masterpiece was an immediate success. KBR is the proud owner of the original (anonymous) 1678 edition (Paris, Claude Barbin), from the donation of Baron Van Bogaert (FS XXXV 800 A).
The work, printed in four parts in remarkably large type, is bound in our copy into two volumes. The first volume bears the signature of none other than the Marquise de Sévigné. That signature appears beneath a note reading “Du Cabinet des Rochers,” referring to her study at her family château near Vitré in Brittany. Everything suggests that this copy once belonged to the Marquise de Sévigné herself.
In 2024, KBR acquired the earliest Brussels edition of La Princesse de Clèves (Brussels, Jean de Smedt, 1705, LP 17.348 A). This rare printing carries the title Les amours de la princesse de Clèves et du duc de Nemours.
On the flyleaf of this Brussels edition are handwritten notes about the question of authorship. According to an unidentified catalogue, the work is attributed to Count Roger de Bussy-Rabutin. A cousin of Madame de Sévigné, he was both celebrated and notorious for his libertine lifestyle and for his novel Histoire amoureuse des Gaules, in which he portrays the intrigues and excesses of court life. But the note concludes: “il ne l’est point du tout” — “he is not the author at all.”
And now, how does the story continue? – SPOILER ALERT!
The Prince of Clèves asks for the hand of Mademoiselle de Chartres, the most celebrated debutante of the year. She feels nothing for him, but she does what is expected of her: she becomes the Princess of Clèves.
But Cupid does not rest. At a court ball, the Princess is introduced by the King himself to the Duke of Nemours, a leading diplomat and the monarch’s trusted confidant. The Princess and the Duke are both instantly, profoundly struck by one another.
After the ball at court, where the spark has been ignited, the Duke of Nemours longs to see the Princess of Clèves again. Determined to remain faithful to her husband, she makes a painful choice: she withdraws to their country estate, while her husband, who does not understand her decision, stays at court in Paris.
Eventually, the Prince of Clèves compels his wife to return to Paris. There she meets the Duke of Nemours again, and something irreversible happens: the Princess confesses to her husband that she is in love with another man.
Not long after, the Duke of Nemours indirectly confides to a mutual friend that he is in love with the Princess. In the court’s web of gossip, these accounts become entangled and amplified, until the Prince of Clèves comes to believe that his wife and the Duke are having an affair.
The Prince remains outwardly calm, but is consumed by jealousy and grief, which gradually make him gravely ill. Soon after, he dies. The way now seems open for a happy union, and the Duke of Nemours himself hopes for a marriage with the Princess.
Yet it does not happen. Deeply shaken, the Princess of Clèves is overcome with sorrow and seeks peace and solitude. She considers it her duty to withdraw to the Pyrenees, where she divides her time between her own house and a convent, refusing to see the Duke. She dies young, leaving behind what later generations would call “unrivalled examples of virtue.”
Text: Beatrijs Vanacker and Wim De Vos