Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Conventions
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: From the Late Medieval to Madame de Lafayette
- Part II The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
- Part III After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century
- 14 Post-Revolutionary Novels
- 15 Private Pain and the Public Temper: The Personal Novel and Beyond
- 16 Between Romance and Social Critique: Staël and Women Writers of the Early Nineteenth Century
- 17 French Realism and History
- 18 Law and the Nineteenth-Century Novel
- 19 Colonial Encounters in the Nineteenth-Century Novel
- 20 French-Canadian Novels from the Nineteenth into the Twentieth Century
- 21 Gender and the Novel from Sand to Colette
- Part IV From Naturalism to the Nouveau Roman
- Part V Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age
- Index
- References
14 - Post-Revolutionary Novels
from Part III - After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2021
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Conventions
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: From the Late Medieval to Madame de Lafayette
- Part II The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
- Part III After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century
- 14 Post-Revolutionary Novels
- 15 Private Pain and the Public Temper: The Personal Novel and Beyond
- 16 Between Romance and Social Critique: Staël and Women Writers of the Early Nineteenth Century
- 17 French Realism and History
- 18 Law and the Nineteenth-Century Novel
- 19 Colonial Encounters in the Nineteenth-Century Novel
- 20 French-Canadian Novels from the Nineteenth into the Twentieth Century
- 21 Gender and the Novel from Sand to Colette
- Part IV From Naturalism to the Nouveau Roman
- Part V Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter re-examines the idea that the development of the novel was hampered by politics during the French Revolution and that literary production was mediocre and ill-suited to the new social order. It studies the shift in the literary scene after the storming of the Bastille and the role of writers in regenerating the nation before considering the propagandistic works of republican writers during the radical phase of the Revolution. The death of the radical leader Robespierre in 1794 resulted in a clear shift in literary activity and prompted a move towards setting novels during the early 1790s which denounce the excesses of Robespierre and his supporters. The chapter places particular emphasis on the under-researched Directory period (1795-99) which is marked by a vogue for the Gothic and for fiction by and about émigrés.
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- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French , pp. 257 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021