SOURCE: Baker, M. J. “France's First Sentimental Novel and Novels of Chivalry.” Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 36, no. 1 (January 1974): 33-45.

In the following essay, Baker argues that Book 2 of Les Angoysses douloureuses is more clearly linked to Book 1 than most critics have assumed, and claims further that the work differs significantly from the novels of chivalry with which it has been categorized because of its focus on love and emphasis on character determining the outcome of events.

France's first sentimental novel, Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent damours (1538), and its author, best known as Hélisenne de Crenne, have received new critical attention in recent years.¹ Jérôme Vercruysse has convincingly documented the identity of Hélisenne de Crenne as Marguerite de Briet, and has discovered a portrait of Hélisenne in the Bibliothèque royale de Bruxelles.² And two editions of Book I of the Angoisses³ have...