Little John of Saintre

…writer chiefly remembered for his Petit Jehan de Saintré, a romance marked by a great gift for the observation of court manners and a keen sense of comic situation and dialogue.

…petit Jehan de Saintré (1456; Little John of Saintre), Antoine de la Sale drew an ill-starred relationship in which hero and heroine both sought to exploit the social game of courtly love for their own ends; the work’s realism and psychological interest have made it for some the first French…