Editing Normandy (section)

===Literature===
[[File:Wace illustration Roman de Rou 1824.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Wace]] presents his ''[[Roman de Rou]]'' to Henry II, Illustration 1824]]
{{See also|Anglo-Norman literature|Gesta Normannorum Ducum}}
The dukes of Normandy commissioned and inspired epic literature to record and legitimise their rule. [[Wace]], [[Orderic Vitalis]] and [[Stephen of Rouen]] were among those who wrote in the service of the dukes. After the division of 1204, French literature provided the model for the development of literature in Normandy. [[Olivier Basselin]] wrote of the Vaux de Vire, the origin of literary ''[[vaudeville]]''. Notable Norman writers include [[Jean Marot]], [[Rémy Belleau]], [[Guy de Maupassant]], [[Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly]], [[Gustave Flaubert]], [[Octave Mirbeau]], and [[Remy de Gourmont]], and [[Alexis de Tocqueville]]. The Corneille brothers, [[Pierre Corneille|Pierre]] and [[Thomas Corneille|Thomas]], born in Rouen, were great figures of French classical literature.

David Ferrand (1591–1660) in his ''Muse Normande'' established a landmark of Norman language literature. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the workers and merchants of Rouen established a tradition of polemical and satirical literature in a form of language called the ''parler purin''. At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, a new movement arose in the Channel Islands, led by writers such as [[George Métivier]], which sparked a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland. In exile in Jersey and then Guernsey, [[Victor Hugo]] took an interest in the vernacular literature. ''[[Les Travailleurs de la mer]]'' is a well-known novel by Hugo set in the Channel Islands. The boom in insular literature in the early 19th century encouraged production especially in La Hague and around Cherbourg, where Alfred Rossel, Louis Beuve and [[Côtis-Capel]] became active. The typical medium for literary expression in Norman has traditionally been newspaper columns and almanacs. The novel ''Zabeth'' by André Louis which appeared in 1969 was the first novel published in Norman.