Gender and Voice in the French Novel, 1730–1782

Analyzing four best-selling novels-by both women and men-written in the feminine voice, this book traces how the creation of women-centered salons and the emergence of a feminine poetic style engendered a new type of literature in eighteenth-century France. The author argues that writing in a female voice allowed writers of both sexes to break with classical notions of literature and style so that they could create a modern sensibility that appealed to a larger reading public, and gave them scope to innovate with style and form. Through examination of Marivaux's La Vie de Marianne, Graffigny's Lettres d'une Péruvienne, Riccoboni's Lettres de Mistriss Fanni Butlerd, and Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses, she shows that in France, this modern "feminine" sensibility turned the least prestigious of literary genres-the novel-into the most compelling and innovative literary form of the eighteenth century.