Le Romanesque ténébreux d’Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon
The Tenebrous Romanesque of Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon

Author(s): Łukasz Szkopiński
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, French Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon; 19th-century French literature; Gothic novel; popular literature
Summary/Abstract: Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon (1786-1864) is, without a doubt, a true giant of the popular literature of the first half of the 19th century. As one of the most prolific authors of his time, he knew how to adapt to the literary tastes of the public from the end of the Napoleonic era until the fall of the July Monarchy. Firstly, the present study outlines the biography of this now largely forgotten writer, a key factor for understanding his literary career, and it gives an overview of his work. At the beginning of the first chapter, particular emphasis is put on the diary of Lamothe-Langon dating from 1809. Later in the chapter, the reception of Lamothe-Langon’s novels in the press of time and his literary posterity are examined. The following chapter focuses on the analysis of the paratext, an essential factor shedding light on many otherwise hidden aspects of the chosen corpus consisting of the eleven novels of Lamothe-Langon belonging to the Gothic genre. The third part of the book is devoted to the dark but fascinating universe of Lamothe-Langon’s novelistic world characterized by a highly heterogeneous assortment of characters in a spatio-temporal framework defined by a whole range of diverse phenomena proper to the world of Gothic fiction. Finally, an important aspect of the novels belonging to the corpus, namely their hybridity, both formal and generic, is thoroughly examined taking into consideration the intrinsic correlation existing between the analyzed novels and the dominant genres of their period, such as the Gothic fiction, the fantastique, the sentimental novel and the historical novel.

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