Madame de Lafayette’s The Princess of Cleves is a love story. The setting is the court of Henry II, and concerns the love that occurs at first sight between the title character, and the Duc de Nemours, a man of high favor. This nearly irresistable love is impeded, however, by the Princess of Cleves' marriage to another man, and the danger of showing intense passion amidst the complex social rules of the royal court.
A noblewoman herself, Madame de Lafayette labored for years to capture the nature of court life, and to bring its inhabitants to life through prose. She benefited from a dedicated circle of intellectuals, who aided her in all the research of that period. She was also quite familiar with the nuances of gossip, and applied this first-hand experience to the actions of her characters. This experience and scholarship give the novel a sense of realism that reinforces its characters, and the risks they take for their desires.
The novel is told in an engaging narrative style, and reads like an oral account of something experienced first hand. The focus is purely on character action, while the many pivotal historical events take place within the story take up no more space than the few sentences needed to mark their passing. Dialogue is written without quotations, and serves more to vocalize internal thoughts, rather than establish realistic speech. This competent, concise narrative gives the novel a storybook quality that fits the subject well.
Love stories may very well be the most common one available, and the one featured in The Princess of Cleves contains many elements common to this genre. The principal heroine is consumed by her desire, yet unable to indulge it. The man is equally in love, and only further inflamed by each obstacle he encounters. Meanwhile, the people around them are unaware of this potential affair, though some do attempt to guess why their acquaintance begins to act out of character. A few of these secondary characters must deal with their own passions for one of the main characters, and strive to steal his or her heart for themselves.
It is what Lafayette does with all of these elements that makes the novel a fascinating read. For rather than assuming that Love is the All Conquering Force that can Do No Wrong, she presents Love as one of the most difficult of emotions. Moreover, she posits that the stronger one’s Love for another, the more potentially destructive this emotion can be. Extreme passion becomes a resevoir for other emotions, which draw upon this bottomless well with a ferocity that threatens reason.
In this manner, the love that grows between the Princess of Cleves and the Duc de Nemours begins to take on a fearsome aspect. What starts out as a mild tragedy - true love unrequitted - becomes a potential fiasco that threatens to break every time these two characters are brought together. Around them the court continues to wind and tick in its own fashion, its main players unaware of the tempest in their midst.
The stakes are further raised by the kind of character Lafayette creates in the Princess of Cleves. Taught by her mother to hold virtue higher than anything else, the Princess of Cleves is an honest woman who believes in doing right by loved ones. She immediately feels guilty about her passion for another man, and constantly refuses herself the opportunity to see this man. Her guilt is made only worse by the unbreakable fidelity of her husband, M. de Cleves, who loves his wife more than anything in this world.
Even more fascinating is the Princess’s honesty with herself: she wishes that the passion she feels for the Duc could have been raised by her own husband. As her feelings for the Duc deepen, she questions her own sense of reserve, and fears the affair that constantly tantalizes her. The Princess begins to feel desperate, and this emotion drives her to commit some actions that were shocking to readers of the late 17th century - and are equally impressive, if not quite as surprising, today.
The Princess’s remarkable self-consciousness, and consistent acts of self-sacrifice, make her a noble hero in the massive cast of Literature’s pantheon. She holds out against a passion that defies all reason, in an environment where people are encouraged to let these emotions reign, provided their indulgences are discrete. She never thinks of resorting to subterfuge to achieve her ends, and believes in telling the truth. As her character develops, it becomes the pivot about which the entire novel rotates.
This is what makes The Princess of Cleves an excellent novel, much as Jane Eyre’s character continues to fascinate readers in Bronte’s romantic tale. The Princess grows to become a strong character amidst a complicated royal court, inhabited by individuals who decided to put aside their morals for the sake of gratification. In this manner, Madame de Lafayette was able to craft a novel of courtly love that contains both the incredible decadence that causes as much delight as it does disgust; and an heroic character whose journey ultimately transcends this decadence, leading the reader to a triumphant ending.
Readers of today’s epic fantasy novels should take note of this French classic. Whereas many contemporary novels attempt to reconstruct the intricacies of medieval court life, this novel is a product of that lifestyle. It also questions the practices of that period, and plumbs the complicated depths of the human heart, without settling for easy conclusions, or the proverbial happy ending. This is a classic that challenges the conventions of genre, and is more than equal to its modern brethren.
