French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Millet, Ceci n'est pas un roman. L'évolution du statut de la fiction en Angleterre de 1652 à 1754.
Novel and Narrative Prose
Review published in Acta Fabula : “'Splendide mendax'. Les procédés de légitimation de fiction en Angleterre entre 1650 et 1750” by Antonia Zagame.
“Ceci n'est pas un roman”. The Evolution of the Status of Fiction in England from 1652 to 1754
Baudoin Millet
Peeters, Leuven, 2007.
« La République des Lettres ». 386 p., 16 × 24 cm. ISBN : 978-90-429-1852-8
Publisher's overview:
This study examines the theoretical discourses and rhetorical devices employed by English-language fiction to legitimize itself amid a climate of stern moral condemnation and scholarly disdain. These discourses and devices unfold across titles, prefaces, and the very heart of the narratives. Authors mobilize them to assert that their stories contain a moral truth or, more frequently, to present the narrative as a factual report. This claim to historicity brings into play the figure of the witness-narrator—who guarantees the truthfulness of the events recounted—as well as that of the manuscript editor, a trope that gained prominence from the 1700s onward. With the publication of Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews (1742), fiction began to exhibit its own fictionality, becoming self-reflexive.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, narrative prose in England navigated a cultural landscape shaped by moral scrutiny and demands for verisimilitude. Authors frequently relied on paratextual elements, such as prefaces and titles, alongside internal narrative strategies to justify their work. By framing stories as genuine historical accounts or embedding them with explicit moral lessons, writers attempted to secure intellectual and social acceptance. This evolving framework highlights the precarious position of prose narratives before the novel gained widespread institutional recognition as a respected literary art form.
Baudoin Millet examines these rhetorical devices and theoretical discourses in “Ceci n'est pas un roman”. The Evolution of the Status of Fiction in England from 1652 to 1754, tracing how figures like the witness-narrator and the manuscript editor helped establish the credibility of early narratives. The study also considers the transition toward self-reflexivity with the work of Henry Fielding, marking a shift in how texts acknowledged their own fictional nature. Readers interested in the history of the English novel and eighteenth-century literary theory may find this volume relevant to understanding the emergence of modern narrative forms.