Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de
Valromey, comte de
Châteauneuf (11 February 15681 June 1625) was a French
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...
and miscellaneous writer.
Life
He was born at
Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
, the grandson of
Claude d'Urfé, and was educated at the Collège de Tournon. A partisan of
the League
''The League'' is an American television sitcom that aired on FX and later FXX from October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015, for a total of seven seasons. The series, set in Chicago, is a semi-improvised comedy show about a fantasy football l ...
, he was taken prisoner in 1595, and, though soon set free, he was again captured and imprisoned. During his imprisonment he read
Ronsard,
Petrarch
Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists.
Petrarch's redis ...
and above all the
''Diana'' of
Jorge de Montemayor and
Tasso's ''Aminta''. After the defeat of the League in 1594, d'Urfé emigrated to
Savoy
Savoy (; ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...
whose duke was a relative of his mother. Here, he wrote the ''Epîtres morales'' (1598).
Honoré's brother Anne, comte d'Urfé, had married in 1571 the beautiful
Diane de Châteaumorand, but the marriage was annulled in 1598 by
Clement VIII. Anne d'Urfé was ordained to the priesthood in 1603, and died in 1621 dean of Montbrison.
Diane had a great fortune, and to avoid the alienation of the money from the D'Urfé family, Honoré married her in 1600. This marriage also proved unhappy; D'Urfé spent most of his time separated from his wife at the court of Savoy, where he held the charge of chamberlain. The separation of goods arranged later on may have been simply due to money embarrassments.
He died from injuries received by a fall from his horse at
Villafranca, during a campaign against the
Genoese.
Works
It was in Savoy that he conceived the plan of his novel ''
L'Astrée'', the scene of which is laid on the banks of the
Lignon in his native province of
Forez
Forez (; ) is a Provinces of France, former province of France, corresponding approximately to the central part of the modern Loire (department), Loire ''département in France, département'' and a part of the Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme ''dépa ...
. It is a leisurely romance in which the loves of Celadon and Astrée are told at immense length with many digressions. The recently discovered circumstances of the marriages of the brothers have disposed of the idea that the romance is autobiographical in its main idea, but some of the episodes are said to be but slightly veiled accounts of the adventures of
Henry IV. The shepherds and shepherdesses of the story are of the usual type in pastorals, and they discourse of love with a casuistry and elaborate delicacy that are by no means rustic.
The first part of ''L'Astrée'' appeared in 1607, the second in 1610, the third in 1619, and in 1627 the fourth part was edited. In 1628 a fifth was added by D'Urfé's secretary
Balthazar Baro. ''L'Astrée'' set the fashion temporarily in romance narratives, and no tragedy was complete without wire-drawn discussions on love in the manner of Celadon and Astrée. The best edition of ''L'Astrée'' is that of 1647.
D'Urfé also wrote the pastoral poem ''Le Sireine'' (publ 1606) and the pastoral play ''
Sylvanire'' (1627).
Memory and legacy
In 1757 ''L'Astrée'' was sufficiently in the public consciousness, or at any rate "Celadon" had become a byword for amorousness, to be referred to in passing by an Italian guest of
Casanova.
The Complete Memoires By Jacques Casanova – Chapter 59 from Nalanda Digital Library at NIT Calicut
In 1908 a bust of D'Urfé was erected at Virieu-le-Grand ( Ain), where the greater part of ''L'Astrée'' was written.
An adaptation of ''L'Astrée,'' by French director Eric Rohmer, was released in 2007 under the title ''Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon'' (in English-speaking territories its title was ''The Romance of Astrea and Celadon).'' It was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, and star Andy Gillet won an Étoile d'Or in 2008 for Best Male Newcomer for his performance as Céladon.
Notes
References
*
External links
*
Two Faces of L'Astrée
– online critical edition of the first and the last edition of the novel ''L’Astrée'' (introduction in English, text in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urfe, Honore d
1568 births
1625 deaths
Writers from Marseille
16th-century French poets
17th-century French poets
French prisoners and detainees
17th-century French male writers
16th-century French novelists
17th-century French novelists
Knights of Malta
Prisoners and detainees of France
16th-century French dramatists and playwrights
16th-century French male writers
17th-century French dramatists and playwrights
People from Provence (French province)