Memoirs of the Count of Comminge and The Misfortunes of Love

These translations from the French bring two of Claudine-Alexandrine de Tencins novels back to life: The Memoirs of the Count of Comminge (1735), presented as a much-needed new translation, and The Misfortunes of Love (1747), appearing here for the first time in English. Published more than half a century after Marie-Madeleine de Lafayettes La Princesse de Clves, they belonged less to Tencins time than to the tradition of the feminine historical novel inspired by Lafayette. Beautifully written in the spare but powerful prose characteristic of French classicism and widely read both in Tencins lifetime and beyond, the novels were forgotten in the mid-nineteenth century. Like the work of Abb Prvost and Pierre de Marivaux, they were important contributions to the early sentimental novel. They also anticipated, surprisingly, the gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe which appeared later in the century.