Date of Award
1981
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Hokenson, Jan W.
Abstract
La Princesse de Cleves has been described as a mirror of Versailles in the Valois court presenting Henri II as a Louis XIV in sixteenth-century apparel. This interpretation is disproved upon examination of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history, the novel in relation to that history, the author's life as well as her documentary and living sources. Henri II is clearly portrayed in the novel as the personnage historians record him to be. He is dissimilar to Louis XIV in the key areas of character such as self-esteem, selfassertion, and relations with others. Similarly, the portrayal of the court of the Valois, including central figures of importance, is clearly derived from the annals of history, described in accurate detail save a few minor exceptions. Finally, through analysis of the characteristics of preciosite in the novel, the so-called classical La Princesse de Cleves emerges as a distinctly precieux work, the precieux school influencing both her general use of history and her development of plot.
Extent
50 p.
Recommended Citation
BROOME, CAROL S., "HISTORY AND FICTION IN "LA PRINCESSE DE CLEVES": HENRI II, THE VALOIS COURT AND 'PRECIOSITE.'" (1981). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1980 - 1989. 100.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_3/100
Identifier
FADT14059
Comments
FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1981.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection