Life, Love & Laughter in the Reign of Louis XIV: A New Translation of Robert Challe's Novel Les Illustres Francaises

First published in 1713, Robert Challe's Les Illustres Francaises was one of the most widely read novels in eighteenth-century France. By the twentieth century, however, both the book and its author had been largely forgotten and only in recent times has it been rediscovered and recognized as one of the masterpieces of French literature - worthy of comparison with such better-known works as Provost's Manon Lescaut and Laclos's Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The novel focuses on a group of rich, witty and urbane friends living in the Paris of Louis XIV, and on the stories they tell each other while wining and dining at each other's homes.

The stories - entertaining tales of love, passion and intrigue - provide a vivid picture of aristocratic life in the age of the Sun King and explore startlingly modern themes such as sexual morality and female emancipation. Indeed, among the large cast of vividly drawn characters, it is the vivacious and courageous women - the illustres Francaises ('illustrious Frenchwomen') of the title - who will most capture the admiration of the modern reader. Ann Preston's highly readable translation makes Challe's novel newly accessible to an English-speaking audience, capturing all the humour, charm and pathos of this extraordinary work.