Amorous History of the Gauls, Followed by the Historical-Satirical Novels of the Seventeenth Century

Roger de Rabutin, comte de BussyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9
Word count
790K words
Chapters
79

Tags

Foreign Language Books Foreign Literature Historical ReappraisalPalace IntriguePortrait GalleryLove EntanglementsPower GameComplex HumanityMoral DilemmaSatirical StylePopular NarrativeSocial Observation

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Histoire amoureuse des Gaules; suivie des Romans historico-satiriques du XVIIeAuthor: Bussy, Roger de Rabutin, comte de, 1618-1693,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Aug 14, 2012

Editor's review

This work is a representative text by the seventeenth-century French nobleman and writer Bussy-Rabutin, juxtaposing memoir-like amorous anecdotes with historical satirical novels to portray the eroticism, power struggles, and gossip culture of courtly society under Louis XIV. Its value lies not in narrative completeness but in the slice of an era preserved from a participant's perspective: the tone is witty and barbed, and most characters are pseudonymous portraits of real aristocrats. It serves literary scholars examining the blending of the novel and memoir in seventeenth-century France, and history readers seeking to sense the mechanisms of courtly public opinion. As a free electronic text from Project Gutenberg, it is better suited to research reading or selected topical reading than to general leisure reading that demands a coherent plot. It is best understood within the social culture and satirical tradition of French classicism.

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the introduction or a relevant literary-history entry to understand the real-life models behind the characters and the writing context before entering the text.
  2. Read section by section, and after each section sort out the court figures and events alluded to.
  3. Read alongside contemporary French memoirs and epistolary literature to observe how satire and private narrative interact.
  4. French readers may prepare a table of names and offices to reduce the difficulty posed by veiled allusions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book a novel or a memoir? It lies between the two: the main part draws on the author's firsthand court amorous anecdotes and has a memoir character, yet it employs novelistic and satirical narration and is accompanied by historical satirical novels. It should not be judged by a single genre standard but read for its mixed-genre character.
Can I understand it without a background in French court history? You can read it, but understanding will suffer. Most characters are pseudonymous portraits of real aristocrats, and without background one easily mistakes allusion for fiction. It is advisable to first consult a brief outline of seventeenth-century French court figures, or choose an annotated edition.
Is the Project Gutenberg edition suitable for scholarly citation? This edition offers a free electronic text convenient for reading and searching, but it generally lacks modern scholarly collation and detailed annotation. For formal citation, check authoritative critical editions or original page numbers, and use the electronic version as supplementary reading material.

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About the author

Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy Author · French · 1618–1693

Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy (1618–1693), was a French memoirist and soldier. Born in Epiry and died in Autun, he served as a lieutenant general of light cavalry and was elected to the Académie française in 1665. That same year, having privately printed his Histoire amoureuse des Gaules, a work depicting scandalous court love affairs, he was imprisoned in the Bastille and exiled to Burgundy. His writings, centred on court intrigues and satirical historical fiction, are marked by a candid and mocking tone; the Histoire amoureuse des Gaules is the work that most provoked the authorities. He is also known for his voluminous correspondence and was a cousin of Madame de Sévigné. Four of his works are held in the collection. Public information is limited, and his literary influence rests mainly on the subject matter and controversy of the Histoire amoureuse des Gaules.