SOURCE: Chang, Leah L. “Clothing ‘Dame Helisenne’: The Staging of Female Authorship and the Production of the 1538 Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours.” Romanic Review 92, no. 4 (November 2001): 381-403.

In the following essay, Chang examines how the narrative of Les Angoysses douloureuses as well as the process of printing the text of the 1538 edition of the novel contributed to the construction of the authorial figure of Hélisenne de Crenne.

In Les Angoysses Douloureuses qui procedent d'amours (Paris, 1538), the protagonist Dame Helisenne owns a white cloak of which she is particularly fond: “J'estois fort curieuse en habillemens, c'estoit la chose ou je prenoye singulier plaisir,”¹ she recalls, describing the garment on which her lover, Guenelic, indiscreetly steps, a transgression that Dame Helisenne finds nonetheless quite pleasurable. By the end of the story another white wrapping appears, this time clothing a little book that Dame Helisenne leaves behind after her death...