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Wes Williams explores the place of monsters in the early modern imagination, charting the migration of the monstrous from natural history to moral philosophy, from descriptions of creatures found in the external world to the drama of human motivation, of sexual and political identity. At its centre are readings of major works of French literature. Cover -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- List of Illustrations -- Note on Translations and References -- Introduction: 'Mighty Magic' -- I. Othello's Defence: Narrative and the Domestication of Monsters -- II. Aristotle, Augustine, and Andromeda: History, Methodology, and Interpretation -- III. Montaigne, the Aethiopica, and the Force of the Imagination -- IV. 'Fabulous Testimonies' -- 1. Rabelais's Monsters: Andromeda, Natural History, and Romance -- I. Untimely Meditations -- I.I. 'A consuming fever of history' -- I.II. 'Let nothing be unknown to you' -- II. Contextual Monsters -- II.I. 'Enfantements estranges, et contre nature' -- II.II. 'Very like a whale': The Name of the Beast -- III. Pantagruel and Panurge: 'Making a Scene' -- III.I. 'They are effectively already married' -- III.II. A Family Romance -- 2. 'Monstrueuses guerres': Ronsard, Mythology, and the Writing of War -- I. Love in a Time of War -- I.I. 'Tel, dira l'amoureux: tu es ainsi, précisément ainsi' -- I.II. 'Le Persée françois': A Political Hero -- II. Histories of the Nation -- II.I. 'Plus qu'en nul lieu': More than in Utopia -- II.II. 'Las! Pauvre France, hélas!' -- II.III. 'On dict que': Towards a History of Public Opinion -- III. Hercules and the Hydra -- III.I. 'Is not Love a Hercules/Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?' -- III.II. 'Aupres des siens, au milieu de la guerre': An Aesthetics of Distance? -- IV. 'Signes seurs/parolles obscures' -- IV.I. Retrospective Reading: 'Les Prognostiques sur les miseres de nostre temps' -- IV.II. 'D'ou vient ce nouveau monstre?': Witnesses to War -- 3. Montaigne's Children: Metaphor, Medicine, and the Imagination -- I. Heliodorus: Miracles, Monsters, and Myself -- I.I. The Bishop's Daughter: 'sa fille, fille qui dure encore' -- I.II. Maternal Impression: 'vicieusement imprimez'.
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