Madame de La Fayette

Emily MN Kugler (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol, Valerie Worth-Stylianou, University of Oxford
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.03: French Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century: Classical and Baroque, 1600-1700.
Vol. editors: Heather Kirk (University of Western Ontario), Kathrina LaPorta (New York University), Polly Mangerson (DePaul University), Julia Prest (University of St Andrews), Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born Mar 1634
Died 25 May 1693
Activity 1654-1693

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

La Fayette's Works

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Marie Madeleine, Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette (1634 -1693) was educated in the heart of French cultural life through the courts and salons of Paris. Her writing, especially

La Princesse de Clèves

(1678),continues to spark interest within academic circles as well as popular culture.

Her parents—Marc Pinoche, Sieur de la Vergne, and Isabelle Pena—were both from families of the minor nobility. As a young woman, she served at court, frequented the salons of the cultural elite—such as that of Madeleine de Scudéry—and learnt Italian and Latin from the noted scholar, the Abbé Gilles Ménage. In 1650, after a year of widowhood, Isabelle Pena remarried. This connection introduced the sixteen year-old Marie Madeleine to one of her closest friends, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal,

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2315 words

Citation: Kugler, Emily MN. "Madame de La Fayette". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 April 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2582, accessed 22 November 2024.]