The Princess of Cleves
by Madame de La Fayette 1634–1693
The book, and the century it came out of.
A young woman married to a man she respects and does not love meets, at a court ball, the one man she does — and decides to tell her husband. Madame de La Fayette wrote it anonymously in 1678 with La Rochefoucauld reading over her shoulder; it is usually called the first modern novel in Europe, and no one since has written a more chilling confession scene. Illustrated with 56 full-page plates — paintings by Titian, Pourbus and Benson among them.
Grandeur and gallantry never appeared with more luster in France, than in the last years of Henry the Second’s reign.
The Princess of Cleves, by Madame de La Fayette, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Love & Society
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 184 pages
- Reading time
- about 4 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501561151
56 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
The court of Louis XIV, 1678
Madame de La Fayette set her novel a century in the past, at the court of Henri II, but everyone at Versailles understood what they were reading: a portrait of a court exactly like their own, in which nothing is private, everything is watched, and a reputation can be destroyed by a lost letter.
It was published anonymously — a woman’s name on a novel was still a liability — and set off a public argument, conducted in print, about whether its heroine had behaved correctly. That argument is arguably the first literary criticism of a novel in any language.
This book in culture: 4 versions
Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.
The whole afterlife of The Princess of Cleves — screen, stage and beyond →
- 1961 La Princesse de Clèves Jean Delannoy
- 1999 The Letter Manoel de Oliveira
- 2008 The Beautiful Person Christophe Honoré TV film
- — La Princesse de Clèves Jean Françaix dramatico-musical work
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Princess of Cleves, first published 1678, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Love & Society shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501561151, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Princess of Cleves?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Madame de La Fayette's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 184 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
