INTERFÉRENCES LITTÉRAIRES EUROPÉENNES À LA NAISSANCE DU ROMAN ÉPISTOLAIRE FRANÇAIS
INTERFÉRENCES LITTÉRAIRES EUROPÉENNES À LA NAISSANCE DU ROMAN ÉPISTOLAIRE FRANÇAIS

Summary/Abstract: It is a well-known fact that the beginnings of the Frenchepistolary novel go back to the second half of the 17th century. The literaltranslations and the free interpretations of some major or minor foreignnovels not only facilitated the birth of the genre in France, but it seemsthat they also determined its success during the 18th century. Havingstudied the sources of some French masterpieces, such as Persian Lettersof Montesquieu and Julie or New Héloïse of J. J. Rousseau, we found oneor more correspondences translated from European languages, especiallyfrom Italian, Spanish and English. In this article we trace back the mostimportant literary influences in Europe in the field of epistolary fiction toshow how these interferences contributed to the birth of the genre inFrance.

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