"Making the Marvelous imparts a highly original premise that yields compelling and unexpected results. Not only does this study shed new light on the late seventeenth-century fairy-tale movement by presenting an alternative theoretical framework for understanding how the descriptive style functions in the works of two of the genre's most important practitioners, it also exposes the complex ideological stakes of ornamental writing, both in general and in the particular sociohistorical context of late seventeenth-century France. . . . This book is a must-read for fairy-tale scholars, literary historians, art historians, and anyone interested in learning more about the intersections of literature and the decorative arts at the dawn of the French Enlightenment."—Allison Stedman, Eighteenth-Century Fiction
“Clearly argued, carefully crafted, and finely detailed, this book is a real gem. It offers a fresh look at the works of d’Aulnoy and Murat by highlighting their embrace of ornament and artful materiality and brilliantly demonstrates the modernity and sophistication of their writing.”—Volker Schröder, associate professor of French at Princeton University
“Rori Bloom’s fascinating new approach to reading d’Aulnoy’s and Murat’s fiction focuses on descriptions and shows that the craftsmanship in the decorative arts informs the marvelous and functions as an analogy between the visual arts and the authors’ own verbal craft.”—Charlotte Trinquet du Lys, associate professor of French and affiliate professor of women and gender studies and medieval and Renaissance studies at the University of Central Florida
“Compelling. . . . By focusing on the artistic processes at work (as opposed to simply the finished product) and how d’Aulnoy and Murat shape their fairy tales as art—as fashionable accessories—Making the Marvelous sheds new light on the early modern fairy tales penned by women.”—Anne E. Duggan, author of Salonnières, Furies, and Fairies: The Politics of Gender and Cultural Change in Absolutist France
