Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, Les

Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, Les 

(One Hundred New Tales), a collection of French prose tales. It originated as a parallel to the Italian collection One Hundred Old-time Tales and was influenced by the French translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron. Compiled at the court of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, in Jemmapes (near Brussels), the collection dates from 1462. The author is unknown, and the collection was probably the work of several authors.

Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles realistically depicts urban life of the late medieval period; many of the tales recount the escapades of faithless wives and portray the hypocrisy of monks. The influence of such medieval genres as the fabliau is apparent: the tales’ plots are anecdotal, simple, and straightforward. At the same time, a Renaissance spirit is evident in the interest in worldly human affairs and in the clearly expressed antiasceticism.

EDITIONS

Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, vols. 1–2. Published by P. Champion. Paris, 1928.
Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. Edited by F. P. Sweetser. Geneva, 1966.
In Russian translation:
Sto novykh novell. St. Petersburg, 1906.

REFERENCES

Olevskaia, V. V. “Sto novykh novell—pervyi sbornik frantsuzskoi novelly.” Uch. zap. MGPlim. V. I. Lenina, 1969, no. 324.
Rasmussen, J. La Prose narrative française du XV siècle. Copenhagen, 1958.
Dubuis, R. Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles et la tradition de la nouvelle en France au Moyen âge. [Saint-Martin d’Hères (Isère)] 1973.

A. D. MIKHAILOV