The years 1630 to 1650 were a period of great fermentation in the development of French literature, as writers responded to the far-reaching ethical and ideological changes taking place in their world. Playwrights constructed plots around moral and affective dilemmas with which their audiences could readily identify and strove for tighter formal structures. Writers of romances--the forerunners of the modern novel--brought about a radical transformation, turning to history for their source material and making the analysis of complex emotions one of their chief concerns. Poets included those who prized, above all, order and purity of diction as well as those who upheld the claims of imagination and fantasy. La Calpranède's contributions to the theater and the romance establish him firmly as a leading figure in both genres. His determination to explore the heroic potential in human nature and the place of the individual in an increasingly regulated world...