Edited and translated by Kelly Digby Peebles
Poems translated by Marta Rijn Finch
In Tales and Trials of Love, Jeanne Flore (whose identity remains a mystery) depicts an ideal notion of love as a mutually beneficial relationship upheld in a world governed by Venus and Cupid. Jeanne Flore urges her readers—and the characters within the tales—to aspire to achieve and vindicate their right to attain mutual love. These seven tales illustrate various obstacles to that ideal and the consequences of denouncing Cupid’s sovereignty. This first bilingual edition situates these tales within the vibrant cultural context of Renaissance Lyon and demonstrates how they respond to contemporary literary conversations, including the querelle des Amyes, works that considered the role of love in a woman’s life, and Christian humanism, an early movement to reform the Catholic Church from within.
To view an excerpt from the introduction, please click here [PDF].
“Peebles’s introduction elegantly shows how Flore’s text stands as a significant textual and material representative of one of the most artistically rich and culturally tumultuous times in early modern France. Her edition and translation will no doubt become a princi-pal reference for future scholarly work not only on Jeanne Flore, but also on female authorship, gender, and print culture in early modern France and Europe.”
— Leah Chang, Associate Professor of French, The George Washington University
Kelly Digby Peebles earned her PhD in French at the University of Virginia in 2010, specializing in literature of the French Renaissance. She now lives in South Carolina, where she is Assistant Professor of French in the Department of Languages at Clemson University.
Marta Rijn Finch is an award-winning New England poet. She studied Latin, Greek, Russian, and Chinese, then lived in France for six years with her husband and two daughters, where she attended the Sorbonne, and translated the poetry of philosopher Simone Weil. Her earlier work for the Other Voice series, the Complete Poems of Pernette du Guillet, edited by Karen James, was published in 2010.
Early Modern Women’s Journal, 10:2. pp. 201-204. Reviewed by Deborah Lesko Baker.
H-France Review, 16:273 (November 2016). Reviewed by Kathleen A. Loyson.
Modern Language Review, 3:1 (2016). pp. 248-249. Reviewed by Elena Woodacre.
Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme, 38:4 (2016). pp. 188-190. Reviewed by Brenda M. Hosington.
Renaissance Quarterly, 69:3 (2016). pp. 1182-1184. Reviewed by Megan Conway.
The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies no longer sells or distributes books in “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series.” Starting July 2015, volumes can be purchased by individuals and institutions from the Chicago Distribution Center. Contact CDC by email (orders@press.uchicago.edu), by fax (800-621-8476 or 773-702-7212), or by phone (800-621-2736 or 773-702-7000).
342 pp / Softcover / August 2014 / 978-0-7727-2166-2 / $39.95