SOURCE: "Lesage and Conventions," in The Eighteenth-Century French Novel: Techniques of Illusion, second edition, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 49-72.

In the following essay, Mylne focuses on Lesage's literary technique and method in Gil Blas, particularly his character development, narrative style, and use of language. The critic also speculates on the reasons for the stylistic inconsistencies between the early and later volumes of the novel.

Lesage states that in Gil Blas he intends to portray 'la vie des hommes telle qu'elle est' (I, I). To the reader of the period this announcement would indicate clearly enough that the book was of the kind known as a roman comique or roman satirique, that it would present a humorously critical view of various social types, and had no pretensions as to being 'historical'. The further admission, 'J'avoue que je n'ai pas toujours exactement suivi les mœurs espagnoles', would provide a...