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HEROIC ROMANCES
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HEROIC ROMANCES , the name by which is distinguished a class of imaginative literature which flourished in the 17th See also:century, principally in See also:France. The beginnings of See also:modern fiction in that See also:country took a pseudo-bucolic See also:form, and the celebrated Astree (1610) of Honore d'See also:Urfe (1568–1625), which is the earliest See also:French novel, is properly styled a See also:pastoral. But this - ingenious and diffuse See also:production, in which all is artificial, was the source of a vast literature, which took many and diverse forms. Although its See also:action was, in the See also:main, languid and sentimental, there was a See also:side of the Astree which encouraged that extravagant love of See also:glory, that spirit of " See also:panache," which was now rising to its height in France. That spirit it was which animated Marin le See also:Roy, sieur de See also:Gomberville (1600-1674), who was the inventor of what hade since been known as the Heroical Romances. In these there was experienced a violent recrudescence of the oid See also:medieval elements of See also:romance, the
impossible valour devoted-to a pursuit of the impossible beauty, but the whole clothed in the See also:language and feeling and See also:atmosphere of the See also:age in which the books were written. In See also:order to give point to the chivalrous actions of the heroes, it was always hinted that they were well-known public characters of the See also:day in a romantic disguise.
In the Astree of Honore d'Urfe, which was a pure pastoral, in the religious romances of See also:Pierre See also:Camus (1582-1653), in the comic Francion of See also: In this novel, for the first See also:time, the romantic See also:character proper to this class of books is seen undiluted; there is no intrusion of a personage who is not celebrated for his See also:birth, his beauty or his exploits. The See also:story deals with the adventures of a hero who visits all the See also:sea-coasts of the See also:world, the most remote as well as the most fabulous, in See also:search of an ineffable princess, Alcidiane. This absurd and pretentious, yet very See also:original piece of invention enjoyed an immense success, and See also:historical romances of a similar class competed for the favour of the public. There was an equal amount of See also:geography and more of See also:ancient history in the Ariane (1632) of See also:Desmarets de See also:Saint-Sorlin (1595-1676), a book which, See also:long neglected, has in See also:late years been rediscovered, and which has been greeted by M. See also:Paul Morillot as the most readable and the least tiresome of all the Heroic Romances. The type of that class of literature, however, has always been found in the highly elaborate writings of Gauthier de Coste de la Calprenede (1609-1663), which enjoyed for a time a prodigious celebrity, and were read and imitated all over See also:Europe. La Calprenede was a Gascon soldier, imbued with all the extravagance of his See also:race, and in full sympathy with the audacity and violence of the aristocratic society of France in his day. His Cassandre, which appeared in ten volumes between 1642 and 1645, is perhaps the most characteristic of all the Heroic Romances. It deals with a highly romantic See also:epoch of ancient history, the decline of the See also:empire of See also: The passion of love is dominant throughout, and it is treated in the most exalted and hyperbolical spirit. The central heroes of the story, Oroondate and See also:Lysimachus, are dignified, eloquent and amorous; they undergo unexampled privations in the quest of incomparable ladies whose beauty and whose See also:nobility is only equalled by their magnificent See also:loyalty. These books were written with an aim that was partly didactic. Their See also:object was to entertain the ladies and to gratify a See also:taste for endlessly See also:wire-See also:drawn sentimentality, but it was also to See also:teach fortitude and grandeur of soul and to inculcate lessons of See also:practical See also:chivalry. La Calprenede followed up the success of his Cassandre with a Cleopdtre (1647) in twelve volumes, and a Faramond (1661) which he did not live to finish. He became more extravagant, more rhapsodical as he proceeded, and he lost all the little hold on history which he had ever held. Cleopdtre, nevertheless, enjoyed a prodigious popularity, and it became the See also:fashion to emulate as far as possible the prowess of its magnificent hero, the proud Artaban. 385 It should be said that la Calprenede objected to his books being styled romances, and insisted that they were specimens of " history embellished with certain inventions." He may, in opposition to his wishes, claim the doubtful praise of being, in reality, the creator of the modern historical novel. He was immediately imitated or accompanied by a large number of authors, of whom two have achieved a certain See also:immortality, which, unhappily, must be confessed to be partly of ridicule. The See also:vogue of the historical romance was carried to its height by a See also:brother and a See also:sister, Georges de See also:Scudery (1601-1667) and Madeleine de Scudery (1608-1701), who represented in their own persons all the extravagant, tempestuous and absurd elements of the age, and whose elephantine romances remain as portents in the history of literature. These novels—there are five of them—were signed by Georges de Scudery, but it is believed that all were in the main written by Madeleine. The earliest was See also:Ibrahim, ou l'Illustre See also:Bassa (1641) ; it was followed by Le See also:Grand See also:Cyrus (1648-1653) and the final, and most preposterous member of the See also:series was Clelie (1649-1654). The romances of Mlle de Scudery (for to her we may safely attribute them) are much inferior in See also:style to those of la Calprenede. They are pretentious, affected and sickly. The author abuses the See also:element of See also:analysis, and pushes a See also:psychology, which was beyond the age in penetration, to a wearisome and excessive extent. Nothing, it is probable, in the whole See also:evolution of the Historical Romances has attracted so much See also:attention as the " See also:Carte de Tendre " which occurs in the opening book of Clelie. This celebrated See also:map, drawn by the heroine in order to show the route from New Friendship to See also:Tender, and a See also:geographical See also:symbol, therefate, of the progress of love, with its See also:city of Tender-upon-Esteem, its sea of Enmity, its See also:river of Inclination, its See also:rock-built citadel of See also:Pride, its See also:cold See also:lake of Indifference, is a See also:miracle of elaborate and incongruous ingenuity. But, amusing as it is, it shows into what depths of puerility the amorous See also:casuistry of these romances had fallen. These novels formed the See also:chief topic of conversation and of See also:correspondence in the See also:literary society which gathered at and around the Hotel de See also:Rambouillet, and in the personages of Mlle de Scudery's romances could be recognized all the famous leaders of that society. The mawkish love-making and the false heroism of these monstrous novels went rapidly out of fashion in France soon after 1660, when the epoch of the Heroic Romance came to an end. In See also:England the Heroic Romance had a See also:period of flourishing popularity. All the See also:principal French examples were very promptly translated, and " he was not to be admitted into the See also:academy of wit who had not read Astrea and The Grand Cyrus." The great vogue of these books in England lasted from about 1645 to r66o. It led, of course, to the See also:composition of original See also:works in See also:imitation of the French. The most remarkable and successful of these was Parthenissa, published in 1654 by See also:Roger See also:Boyle, See also:Lord Broghill and afterwards See also:Earl of See also:Orrery (1621-1679), which was greatly admired by Dorothy See also:Osborne and her correspondents. See also:Addison speaks in the " Spectator " of the popularity of all these huge books, " the Grand Cyrus, with a See also:pin See also:stuck in one of the See also:middle leaves, Clelie, which opened of itself in the See also:place that describes two lovers in a See also:bower." When the See also:drama, and in particular tragedy, was reinstituted in England, sentimental readers found a See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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