The Précieuses was a 17th-century French literary style and movement. This style used elegant and fancy language, often found in the conversations of wealthy and educated people. It included long and roundabout ways of saying things, exaggerated statements, and word plays about romantic love. This movement was similar to styles in Italy, Spain, and England, such as marinism, culteranismo, and euphuism.

History

The movement began in the 17th century from the lively conversations and playful word games of les précieuses, the intellectual, witty, and educated women who gathered in the salon of Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet. Her Chambre bleue, or "blue room" in her private home, provided a safe space in Paris for women to escape the dangerous political conflicts and rough manners of the royal court during the regency of Louis XIV.

One important figure at the Hôtel de Rambouillet was Madeleine de Scudéry. She wrote many romance novels that showed the ideals of préciosité, such as feminine elegance, proper manners, and courtly love. These ideas were popular among women but criticized by most men, including Molière, who mocked the précieuses in his comedy Les Précieuses ridicules (1659). The "questions of love" discussed in the précieuses' salons were inspired by medieval "courts of love," fictional groups that judged the behavior of lovers.

None of the women ever used or explained the term "précieuse" themselves. Myriam Maître described préciosité not as a list of traits but as a way for people to deal with the tensions of the time. Patricia Howard noted that the précieux movement helped women take leading roles in French theater, especially after the career of Philippe Quinault, who began at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1653.

A popular parlor game among the précieuses was retelling fairy tales as if they were being created on the spot, even though the stories were carefully prepared. Many of these tales, written in the style of the précieuses, were created by Madame d'Aulnoy. This trend influenced later writers like Charles Perrault and Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the author of Beauty and the Beast. These stories often changed traditional folk tales by making characters noble or royal, even if they appeared as shepherds or shepherdesses in pastoral settings.

The précieuses are also remembered through Molière's satire Les Précieuses ridicules (1659). After touring the provinces, this play brought Molière to the attention of Parisians and earned the support of Louis XIV. The play is seen as the start of the negative meaning of "précieuse," which came to mean "affected" or overly refined.

The influence of the précieuses on French literary classicism was revived in 1838 by Louis Roederer, who wrote Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la société polie en France. His work expressed a longing for the gentle lifestyle of the Ancien Régime and the leisure of the aristocracy. Later, in Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, a character named Roxane is described as a précieuse.

René Bary, a French historian and writer who died in 1680, published La Rhétorique française in 1653. This book, written for the female audience of the précieuses, explained the secrets of the French language.