Le Commerce du Parnasse

This critical edition of Francoise Pascal’s epistolary collection Le Commerce du Parnasse (Paris, 1669) highlights a rare, innovative and entertaining work by a woman writer virtually unknown today, but in her time a distinguished playwright, poet and painter. Composed of letters in prose and verse, this is part gallant correspondence, part poetry collection, part epistolary novel. It provides insights into 17th-century salon life and the discourses of galanterie and preciosite . The text, introduction and essential notes are all in French.