L'homme tout nu by Catulle Mendès
"L'homme tout nu" by Catulle Mendès is a novel written in the late 19th century. In a witty pastiche of medieval Provence, it turns the codes of courtly love and chivalry into sparkling, sensual comedy, following the hot-blooded young knight Pierre de Pierrefeu—counterpointed by his wine-loving brother Marcabrus and his devout brother Aymeril—as he pursues glory and pleasure amid troubadours, Courts of Love, and capricious fate. The opening of the novel sets
the stage with a mock-chronicle of the three half-brothers departing their crumbling castle: Marcabrus heads for Toulouse with the money, Aymeril vows a pious journey east with his share, and Pierre keeps the magnificent horse and finery, vowing conquests of the heart. The scene shifts to the château of Romanin, whose new tower owes its existence to a legendary lovers’ embrace amid flames, and where the celebrated Court of Love presided by the comtesse Phanette adjudicates playful, intricate cases of kisses, jealousy, and clerical scruples. Clermonde des Iles-d’Or, the paragon of chastity, arrives to announce she has just been kissed in the wood by a naked man. Intercut, Pierre rescues the tavern servant Mariotte from her jealous master, only to be ambushed by routiers who steal his horse and splendid clothes, leaving him literally “all naked” to slink into the forest—setting up the comic predicament promised by the title. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Mendès, Catulle, 1841-1909 |
|---|---|
| Title | L'homme tout nu |
| Original Publication | Paris: Victor-Havard, 1887. |
| Credits | Laurent Vogel, Robin Tremblay and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) |
| Language | French |
| LoC Class | PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Subject | French fiction -- 19th century |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78059 |
| Release Date | Feb 27, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 4965 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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