May 8, 2018
I mentioned Chateaubriand's René; here it is in French and in English.
Another famous example of the convent as a place of retreat from the rigors of worldly love is in the late-eighteenth-century novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Choderlos de Laclos. It's a lot of novel for that one thing, but it's darkly enjoyable in its own right. (And, of course, there is the 1988 movie, which is relatively faithful to, if simplified from, the novel.)
And finally, here again is the Preface to Cromwell, in French and in English.