Resumen
Resumen de La princesa de Clèves
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Para quién es
Readers who love royal courts and historical settings will enjoy this quiet emotional drama. It rewards those who like clear storytelling and thoughtful looks at hidden feelings, love, marriage, and honor.
De qué trata este libro
Picture a ballroom in Paris, with the king and both queens looking on, as a young wife dances for the first time with a man she has never met. The whole room senses that something has begun. The whole room is right.
Madame de La Fayette published The Princess of Cleves in 1678, setting it a century earlier, in the last years of Henry II's reign. It is often named the first great psychological novel in French. A wife loves a man who is not her husband, tells her husband so, and must live with what follows. You get the story scene by scene, and then the ideas beneath it: honor, secrecy, jealousy, and the price of truth.
En este resumen
- 1A glittering court shapes a guarded young heiressFree
- 2A marriage of esteem leaves her heart untouched
- 3One dance at a ball changes everything
- 4A mother's history lesson ends in a deathbed warning
- 5A tale of a deceitful widow warns of hidden lives
- 6A stolen portrait and a lost letter test her
- 7She confesses her feelings to her own husband
- 8Passion and duty pull one heart apart
- 9Court life turns secrets into public currency
- 10A calm voice makes inner life dramatic
Idea clave 1 de 10
A glittering court shapes a guarded young heiress
The story opens in the final years of Henry II's reign, when the French court shines with beauty, music, tournaments, and rivalry. The king loves the older Diana of Poitiers, Duchess of Valentinois, and she holds great power over him. Love and business are tangled so tightly that nobody can tell where one ends.
Into this world comes a girl of sixteen, one of the richest heiresses in France. Her mother, Madame de Chartres, has raised her in the country and shaped her intelligence and virtue. Unlike most mothers, she speaks openly of love, then lays out its dangers, the falseness of men and the misery of a wrong attachment. She asks to hear about every flirtation her daughter meets, and offers advice as a friend.
The girl's beauty makes her the talk of Paris within days. Her virtue is a trained habit, and the book will test how deep it goes. A well-guarded heart is not the same as a quiet one.
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Who’s who
- Princess of Cleves
- A virtuous young heiress raised by her mother to fear passion, she wants to honor her husband yet cannot stop loving another man.
- Prince of Cleves
- A generous, brave nobleman who loves his wife deeply and wants her heart as well as her loyalty.
- Duke de Nemours
- The most charming man at court, a famous lover who gives up his usual conquests and even a crown for one woman.
- Madame de Chartres
- The heroine's watchful mother, who teaches her daughter to distrust love and to guard her reputation at any cost.
- Viscount de Chartres
- The princess's uncle and Nemours's close friend, a gallant courtier tangled in secret affairs and the queen's jealousy.
- Queen-Dauphin
- Mary Stuart, young wife of the heir, who befriends the princess and loves to learn court secrets.
- Chevalier de Guise
- A loyal, open-hearted prince who loves the heroine from the first day and reads her feelings sooner than anyone.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 55,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 8 other languages
Questions about La princesa de Clèves
What is The Princess of Cleves about?
It follows a young noblewoman at the court of Henry II who marries a good man, then falls in love with the Duke de Nemours. She struggles to stay true to her duty while her feelings grow.
Is The Princess of Cleves a true story?
The setting and many people, such as Henry II, Diane de Poitiers, and the Guise family, are real. The princess and her story are invented. Madame de La Fayette published the novel in 1678, about a century after the events.
Why does the princess confess to her husband?
She wants to keep herself from acting on her feelings for Nemours. She asks her husband to let her leave court, hoping honesty and distance will protect both her duty and her marriage.
Is The Princess of Cleves easy to read?
Its clear, steady prose and short scenes make it approachable. The story centers on a few people, and the tales told inside it keep the pace lively. Knowing who is who at court helps.
What is the main message of The Princess of Cleves?
The book shows how passion and duty pull against each other and how a court turns private feeling into public matter. It values honesty and self-command while admitting how much they cost.
Cite this edition
La Fayette, Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne. The Princess of Cleves. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-of-cleves.
La Fayette, M.-M. P. de L. V. (2026). The Princess of Cleves. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-of-cleves (Original work published 1678)
La Fayette, Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne. The Princess of Cleves. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-of-cleves.
@book{lafayette2026princess,
author = {La Fayette, Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne},
title = {The Princess of Cleves},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-of-cleves},
note = {First published 1678}
}
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