French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Vintenon, Les métamorphoses du désir. Étude des Amours de Ronsard
Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Bibliographic reference: Alice Vintenon, Les métamorphoses du désir. Étude des Amours de Ronsard, Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, "Cours" series, 2015. EAN13: 9791024005393.

144 p. - 15 x 20.5 cm
13 €
Co-published with CNED

First published in 1552, Les Amours stands as one of the major literary events of 16th-century France: repeatedly imitated during the Renaissance, the collection was immediately hailed as a masterpiece and even became the subject of scholarly commentary by Marc-Antoine Muret.

This volume places the work within its poetic context, demonstrating how it weaves together highly heterogeneous literary (petrarchism, epic, etc.) and philosophical (neoplatonism, epicureanism, etc.) references. At the same time, it highlights the innovative nature of Les Amours, evident in the material presentation of the collection, its approach to the sonnet, and its casual distance from its sources and models.

The book offers three distinct approaches to the work: the first explores the publication context of the collection and its formal features; the second examines its philosophy of love; and the third analyzes its use of philosophical and mythological references.

Alice Vintenon is Associate Professor of 16th-century Literature at the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne and a member of the Montaigne Centre (research team "Texts, Literatures: Writings and Models", TELEM). In 2012, at Paris Ouest-Nanterre University, she defended her doctoral dissertation entitled Phantasia plus quam fantastica : penser en fiction à la Renaissance.

Introduction

Chapter I - Context and Form of the Collection
Ronsard before Les Amours
Formative Years
From the Meeting with Cassandre to her Poetic Transfiguration
The bombshell of the Deffence (1549)
Les Amours: The Shape of a Collection
The 1552 Collection: Physical Description
The Reader's Horizon of Expectations: A Collection of Petrarchan Inspiration
An Innovative Title
A Peritext Marked by Venus and Humanist Culture
Between Text and Paratext: The Ambiguous Status of the "Voeu"
The Musical Supplement
Adjustments in the 1553 Edition
Reorganizing the Collection's Structure Around the Songs
The Subtle Structuring of the Sonnets
Marc-Antoine Muret's Commentary
The Practice of the Sonnet in Les Amours
The Sonnet Before Ronsard: Historical Milestones
The Structure of the Sonnet in Les Amours
Ronsard's "Illustrious Conclusions"
The Structuring of the Ronsardian Sonnet: A Mannerist Style?

Chapter II - The Love of Les Amours
Petrarchism
The Canzoniere: A Spiritual Journey
Love in the Canzoniere
The Reception of the Canzoniere in Renaissance Italy
The Reception of Petrarch and Petrarchists in France
Petrarchism in Les Amours (1552–1553)
From Free Petrarchism to Anti-Petrarchism
Neoplatonism
The Physiology of Love: From the Wound of the Gaze to Amorous Melancholy
Amorous Frenzy and Celestial Love: The Ambiguities of Ronsard's Rewritings
"Death to the Self" and the Figure of the Androgyne

Chapter III - Les Amours and Forms of Knowledge
Erudition and the Illustration of Amorous Poetry
An Inspired Amorous Poetry?
Cassandre as a Heroic and Inspired Figure
Cassandre and the Rivalry Between Amorous and Epic Poetry
The Prophetess: A Double of the Vates?
The Ornament of Mythological Fable
The Cosmic Opening of the Collection
The Scholarly Fantasies of Les Amours
Ronsard's Playful Philosophy
Poetry and Truth: Hostile Sisters?
Two Examples of "Philosophical Fantasies": Sonnets 82 and 37
The Fantasy of Myths
Toward a "Low Style"?

Conclusion
Anthology of Critical Texts
Bibliography

Pierre de Ronsard's Les Amours stands as a major literary event of sixteenth-century France, receiving immediate acclaim and early scholarly commentary upon its first publication. This volume by Alice Vintenon explores the poetic context of the collection, examining how it weaves together heterogeneous literary traditions such as petrarchism and the epic alongside philosophical frameworks including neoplatonism and epicureanism. The study highlights the innovative nature of the work through its material presentation, its approach to the sonnet form, and its casual distance from established sources and models.

The book is structured around three distinct approaches that investigate the publication context and formal features of the collection, its underlying philosophy of love, and its specific use of philosophical and mythological references. Readers interested in Renaissance French poetry and the reception of classical and humanist models may find this volume relevant to their pursuits.