Disenchantment, Skepticism, and the Early Modern Novel in Spain and France

This volume examines five early modern novels from the seventeenth century in Spain and France as examples of literature as a form of skeptical inquiry: Cervantes's Don Quijote, Zayas's Desengaños amorosos, Scarron's Roman comique, Cyrano de Bergerac's L'Autre Monde, and Mme. de Lafayette's Zayde.

Ann T. Delehanty is John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of French and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She is also the author of Literary Knowing in Neoclassical France: From Aesthetics to Poetics (2012).

Introduction 1. "Don Quijote and the Lessons of Shock" 2. "Interrogating Social Categories in María de Zayas's Desengaños amorosos" 3. "Scarron's Roman comique and the Dangers of Undifferentiability" 4. "Cyrano de Bergerac's L'Autre Monde and the Critique of Fixity" 5. "Madame de Lafayette's Zayde and the Insuperability of Alienation" 6. Conclusion