The Essence of Style
- 303 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Writing with great elan, DeJean explains how the glittering world of Louis XIV set the standards of sophistication, style, and glamour that still rule today's lifestyles.
Joan E. DeJean Books
Joan DeJean is a leading author focused on French literature, history, and the material culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her work explores how France, and particularly Paris, became a center of modern culture and style. DeJean analyzes how innovation in fashion, food, and design translated into daily life, shaping contemporary society. Her approach is rooted in a deep understanding of historical context and its enduring influence.
Scarron's Roman comique
- 110 pages
- 4 hours of reading
Although not a direct parody like his Virgile travesti, Scarron's Roman comique is nevertheless one of the works of seventeenth-cen- tury French prose fiction most conscious of literary tradition and most self-conscious with regard to its own narrative techniques. The role of the narrator, the functioning of rhetoric and the structure of the novel are all examined from the point of view of these notions, to show why the Roman comique may be termed a novelist's novel, a novel about novels and the paradox on which they are based - the making of credible fiction.
