George Saintsbury undertakes a comprehensive history of the French novel from its earliest origins up to the close of the nineteenth century, focusing as much on the history of literary pleasure as on the mechanical development of the genre. He begins by dismissing the absolute wall between romance and novel, or between verse and prose fiction, treating early verse romances and prose books under the general term roman. The initial chapters explore the obscure beginnings of prose and verse fiction, examining the vital role of hagiography—the Saint's Life—as a primary starting point for narrative art, alongside the patriotic and family sagas of the Chansons de Geste. Saintsbury then moves through the classical borrowings of Troy and Alexander, analyzing how the story of Troilus and Cressida laid the groundwork for modern psychological love-stories, while the Alexander legends introduced oriental wonder and quest-motives into Western tradition.
A central pillar of the study is the Arthurian Legend, where Saintsbury attributes the origin of the complete novel-romance to an unknown genius who ingeniously wove together the sacred Grail quest with the profane love of Lancelot and Guinevere. He explores the character dynamics of Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, highlighting their psychological complexity, human flaws, and tragic inevitability. The work proceeds through the romans d'aventures, such as Partenopeus of Blois, tracing the growth of varied episodic structures and refined character-drawing.
Moving into prose fiction, Saintsbury examines thirteenth and fourteenth-century novelettes, the fabliaux, and the rise of the short story, emphasizing how these forms acted as a school for realistic observation and dialogue. A major portion is dedicated to Rabelais, whom Saintsbury hails as the first great known genius of French fiction, analyzing the unmatched narrative impetus, encyclopaedic satire, and structural uniqueness of his chronicles. Later chapters survey seventeenth-century pastoral and heroic romances like the Astrée and Le Grand Cyrus, the realistic and burlesque novels of Sorel and Scarron, and the perfection of psychological depth in Madame de la Fayette's La Princesse de Clèves. The evolution continues through the eighteenth century with Lesage, Marivaux, Prévost—particularly the unique masterpiece Manon Lescaut—and the philosophe novels of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot. Finally, the study examines the literature of sensibility in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, concluding with a comprehensive view of the French novel on the eve of the modern era.
