ABSTRACT
La Nouvelle ameriquaine [An American Tale] is one of a very large number of works of fiction written by Madeleine-Angelique Poisson, Madame de Gomez, one of the most successful women writers of the eighteenth century. Author of plays, novels, short stories, and essays, her works were published, reprinted, and translated into several languages during her lifetime. RecogO nized with Mile Barbier as one of the most productive playwrights of her time, in recent years, scholarly attention has turned to her fictional works (Mish, Jones-Day). In at least two respects, this tale is anticipatory of trends which become major themes in the eighteenth century: Of interest as an early example of the North American setting, it is significant as well for its display of the effects of the emerging Enlightenment sensibility on the traditional roO mantic fictional narrative.
