Madame de La Fayette's La Princesse de Cleves

1678

An anonymous novel appeared in Paris about a young noblewoman at the court of Henry II torn between marital duty and illicit passion. The Princess of Cleves, by Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette, invented the modern psychological novel and became an immediate sensation in French salons and courts, proving that the inner life of a woman could sustain a work of literary art.