Lines 1-5

“The Art of the Novel” opens with a reference to the story line of Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story, with the comment that back in 1790, “a woman could die by falling” in love with a forbidden man. A specific reference to the title of Inchbald's book follows, with the text “A Simple Story.” In lines 4 and 5, a single word, “Ruined,” is set apart with a period from the speaker's comparison of a woman to a building and of love to “centuries of bad weather.” These images reflect the speaker's view of love as something that slowly batters and erodes an otherwise strong and stable woman. Sajé continues with the image “A mirror carried on a highway,” referring to the French author Henri Stendhal's own description of his novel The Red and the Black.

Lines 6-7

The speaker now mentions two tragic heroines: Emma Bovary of...