A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1

  CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF FRENCH FICTIONNOTICED IN THIS VOLUME

  11TH CENTURY

  _Vie de Saint Alexis_ (probably).

  _Roland_ and one or two other _Chansons_ (possibly).

  12TH CENTURY

  Most of the older _Chansons_.

  _Arthurian Legend_ (in some of its forms).

  _Roman de Troie_, _Romans d'Alexandre_ (older forms).

  13TH CENTURY

  Rest of the more genuine _Chansons_.

  Rest of ditto Arthuriad and "Matter of Rome."

  _Romans d'Aventures_ (many).

  Early Fabliaux (probably).

  _Roman de la Rose_ and _Roman de Renart_ (older parts).

  Prose Stories (_Aucassin et Nicolette_), etc.

  14TH CENTURY

  Rehandlings, and younger examples, of all kinds above mentioned.

  15TH CENTURY

  Ditto, but only latest forms of all but Prose Stories, and many of theothers rendered into prose.

  _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles._ First _edition_, 1480, but written muchearlier.

  _Petit Jehan de Saintre_, about 1459, or earlier.

  _Jehan de Paris._ Uncertain, but before 1500.

  16TH CENTURY

  Rabelais. First Book of _Pantagruel_ Second of the whole, 1533;_Gargantua_, 1535; rest of _Pantagruel_ at intervals, to the(posthumous) Fifth Book in 1564.

  Marguerite de Navarre. _Heptameron._ Written before (probably some timebefore) Marguerite's death in 1549. Imperfectly published as _Les AmantsFortunes_, etc., in 1558; completely, under its permanent title, nextyear.

  Bonaventure Desperiers. _Cymbalum Mundi_, 1537; _Contes et JoyeuxDevis_, 1558, but written at least fourteen years earlier, as the authordied in 1544.

  Helisenne de Crenne. _Les Angoisses_, etc., 1538.

  _Amadis_ Romances. Date of Spanish or Portuguese originals uncertain.Herberay published the first part of his French translation of _Amadis_itself in 1540.

  Many of the small pastoral and adventurous stories noticed at thebeginning of Chapter VIII. appeared in the last fifteen years of thesixteenth century, the remainder in the first quarter of theseventeenth. But of the Greek and Spanish compositions, which had sogreat an influence on them and on the subsequent "Heroic" School, thework of Heliodorus had been translated as early as 1546, and the _Diana_of Montemayor in 1578.

  17TH CENTURY

  Honore d'Urfe. _L'Astree_, 1607-19. (First three parts in Urfe'slifetime, fourth and fifth after his death in 1625.)

  "Heroic" Romance, 1622-60, as regards its principal examples, the exactdates of which are given in a note to p. 176. Madame de Villedieu wrotealmost up to her death in 1683.

  Fairy Tales, etc. The common idea that Perrault not only produced themasterpieces but set the fashion of the kind is inexact. Madamed'Aulnoy's _Contes des Fees_ appeared in 1682, whereas Perrault's_Contes de ma Mere L'Oye_ did not come till fifteen years later, in1697. The precise dates of the writing of Hamilton's Tales are not, Ithink, known. They must, for the most part, have been between theappearance of Galland's _Arabian Nights_, 1704, and the author's deathin 1720. As for the _Cabinet_ and its later constituents, see below onthe eighteenth century.

  Sorel, Ch. _Francion_, 1622; _Le Berger Extravagant_, 1627.

  Scarron, P. _Le Roman Comique_, 1651.

  Cyrano de Bergerac. _Histoire Comique_, etc., 1655.

  Furetiere, A. _Le Roman Bourgeois_, 1666.

  La Fayette, Madame de. _La Princesse de Cleves_, 1678. Her first book,_La Princesse de Montpensier_ (much slighter but well written), hadappeared eighteen years earlier, and _Zaide_ or _Zayde_ in 1670,fathered by Segrais.

  Fenelon. _Telemaque_, 1699.

  18TH CENTURY

  _Cabinet des Fees_, containing not only the authors or translatorsmentioned under the head of the preceding century, but a series of laterwritings down to the eve of the Revolution. Gueulette's adaptations andimitations ranged from the _Soirees Bretonnes_, published in 1712 duringHamilton's lifetime, to the _Thousand and One Hours_, 1733, the othercollections mentioned in the text coming between. It may be worthmentioning that, being an industrious editor as well as tale-teller andplaywright, he reprinted _Le Petit Jehan de Saintre_ in 1724 andRabelais in 1732. Caylus's tales seem to have been scattered over themiddle third of the century from about 1730 to his death in 1765.Cazotte's _Diable Amoureux_ (not in the _Cabinet_) is of 1772--he hadwritten very inferior things of the tale kind full thirty years earlier.Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont (who was long an actual governess in England)wrote her numerous "books for the young" for the most part between 1757(_Le Magazin des Enfants_) and 1774 (_Contes Moraux_).

  Lesage. _Le Diable Boiteux_, 1707; _Gil Blas de Santillane_, 1715-35.

  Marivaux. _Les Effets Surprenants_, 1713-14; _Marianne_, 1731-36; _LePaysan Parvenu_, 1735.

  Prevost. _Memoires d'un Homme de Qualite_, 1728-32, followed by _ManonLescaut_, 1733; _Cleveland_, 1732-39; _Le Doyen de Killerine_, 1735;_Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne_, 1741.

  (It may not be impertinent to draw attention to the fact that Prevost,like Defoe--though not quite to the same extent, and in the middle, nottowards the end of his career--concentrated the novel-part of anenormous polygraphic production upon a few years.)

  Crebillon _fils_. _Lettres de la Marquise_, 1732; _Tanzai et Neadarne_,1734; _Les Egarements_, 1736; _Le Sopha_, 1745; _La Nuit et le Moment_,1755; _Le Hasard au Coin du Feu_, 1763; _Ah! Quel Conte!_ 1764.

  Voltaire's _Tales_ were distributed over a large part of his long andinsatiably busy life; but none of his best are very early. _Zadig_ is of1747; _Micromegas_ of 1752; _Candide_ of 1759; _L'Ingenu_ and _LaPrincesse de Babylone_ of 1767 and 1768 respectively.

  Rousseau. _La Nouvelle Heloise_, 1760; _Emile_, 1762.

  Diderot. _Les Bijoux Indiscrets_, 1748. _Jacques le Fataliste_ and _LaReligieuse_ were posthumously published, but must have been written muchearlier than their author's death in 1784.

  Marmontel. _Contes Moraux_ appeared in the official or semi-official_Mercure de France_, with which the author was connected from 1753-60,being its manager or editor for the last two of these years. _Belisaire_came out in 1767.

  Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. _Paul et Virginie_, 1787; _La ChaumiereIndienne_, 1790.

  "Sensibility" Novels:--

  Madame de Tencin. _Le Comte de Comminge_, 1735; _Les Malheurs del'Amour_, 1747.

  Madame Riccoboni. _Le Marquis de Cressy_, 1758; _Lettres de JulieCatesby_, 1759; _Ernestine_, 1762.

  Madame Elie de Beaumont. _Le Marquis de Roselle_, 1764.

  Madame de Souza. _Adele de Senanges_, 1794.

  Madame de Genlis. _Mlle. de Clermont_, 1802.

  Madame de Duras. _Ourika_, 1823; _Edouard_, 1825.

  Xavier de Maistre. _Voyage autour de ma Chambre_, 1794; _Le Lepreux dela Cite d'Aoste_, 1812; _Les Prisonniers du Caucase, La JeuneSiberienne_, 1825.

  Benjamin Constant. _Adolphe_, 1815.

  Restif de la Bretonne. _Le Pied de Fanchette_, 1769; _Adele_, 1772; _LePaysan Perverti_, 1775-76; _Les Contemporaines_, 1780-85; _IngenueSaxancour_, 1789; _Monsieur Nicolas_, 1794-97.

  Pigault-Lebrun. _L'Enfant du Carnaval_, 1792; _Les Barons de Felsheim_,1798; _Angelique et Jeanneton_, _Mon Oncle Thomas_, _La FolieEspagnole_, 1799; _M. Botte_, 1802; _Jerome_, 1804; _Tableaux deSociete_, 1813; _Adelaide de Meran_, 1815; M. de Roberval,_L'Officieux_, 1818.