Princess of Cleves

A young woman married to a man she respects and does not love meets, at a court ball, the one man she does — and decides to tell her husband. Madame de La Fayette wrote it anonymously in 1678 with La Rochefoucauld reading over her shoulder; it is often called the first modern French novel, and no one since has written a more chilling confession scene. Forty-four court portraits from 1412 to 1648, by painters including François Clouet and Antoine Caron, give faces to the kings, queens and nobles who move through this story of the French court.