Madame Sevigne's Books

Selected Letters

By: Madame Sevigne

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One of the world's greatest correspondents, Madame de Sévigné (1626-96) paints an extraordinarily vivid picture of France at the time of Louis XIV, in eloquent letters written throughout her life to family and friends. A significant figure in French society and literary circles, whose close friends included Madame de La Fayette and La Rochefoucauld, she reflected on both significant historical events and personal issues, and in this selection of the most significant letters, spanning almost fifty years, she is by turns humorous and melancholic, profound and superficial. Whether describing the new plays of Racine and Molière, speculating on court scandals - including the intrigues of the King's mistresses - or relating her own family concerns, Madame de Sévigné provides throughout an intriguing portrait of the lost age of Le Roi Soleil.

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Page Count

506

Publisher

Penguin UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0141965126

ISBN 13

9780141965123

The Princess of Cleves

By: Madame De La Fayette

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The Princess of Cleves

By: Madame De La Fayette

Perhaps one of the greatest works of French literature is Madame de Lafayette's The Princess of Cleves, often described as the first of all "modern" novels. This classic translation, with an introduction, by the late English novelist and biographer Nancy Mitford, was first brought out in 1951 by New Directions. It is now made available as a New Directions Paperbook. Published in 1678 and written by Marie Madeleine Roche de la Vergne, Countess de Lafayette - a Parisian lady of fashion and great wit, who probably received help from her friend the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, author of the famous Maxims - it recreates with matchless vitality the lives and loves of the sixteenth-century courtiers of King Henry II of France. In her exquisite tapestry, we encounter such historic figures as Diane de Poitiers, the king's mistress; Catherine de Medicis, his queen; the doomed Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. It tells the story of the consuming passion of the young Duc de Nemours for the beautiful wife of his friend the Prince of Cleves. Madame de Sevigne, the great letter writer and life-long friend of Madame de Lafayette, called Th e Princess of Cleves "one of the most charming things." It is still that - and it is also one of the truly great love stories of all literature. Book jacket.

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Page Count

244

Publisher

New Directions Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811210707

ISBN 13

9780811210706

The Princesse De Cleves

By: Madame Lafayette

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The Princesse De Cleves

By: Madame Lafayette

Set towards the end of the reign of Henry II of France, The Princesse de Clèves (1678) tells of the unspoken, unrequited love between the fair, noble Mme de Clèves, who is married to a loyal and faithful man, and the Duc de Nemours, a handsome man most female courtiers find irresistible. Warned by her mother against admitting her passion, Mme de Clèves hides her feelings from her fellow courtiers, until she finally confesses to her husband - an act that brings tragic consequences for all. Described as France's first modern novel, The Princesse de Clèves is an exquisite and profound analysis of the human heart, and a moving depiction of the inseparability of love and anguish.

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Page Count

215

Publisher

Penguin UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0141960558

ISBN 13

9780141960555

Dialogues and Addresses

By: Madame de Maintenon

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Dialogues and Addresses

By: Madame de Maintenon

Born Françoise d'Aubigné, a criminal's daughter reduced to street begging as a child, Madame de Maintenon (1653-1719) made an improbable rise from impoverished beginnings to the summit of power as the second, secret wife of Louis XIV. An educational reformer, Maintenon founded and directed the celebrated academy for aristocratic women at Saint-Cyr. This volume presents the dialogues and addresses in which Maintenon explains her controversial philosophy of education for women. Denounced by her contemporaries as a political schemer and religious fanatic, Maintenon has long been criticized as an opponent of gender equality. The writings in this volume faithfully reflect Maintenon's respect for social hierarchy and her stoic call for women to accept the duties of their state in life. But the writings also echo Maintenon's more feminist concerns: the need to redefine the virtues in the light of women's experience, the importance of naming the constraints on women's freedom, and the urgent need to remedy the scandalous neglect of the education of women. In her writings as well as in her own model school at Saint-Cyr, Maintenon embodies the demand for educational reform as the key to the empowerment of women at the dawn of modernity.

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Page Count

213

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226502406

ISBN 13

9780226502403

Life in Mexico

By: Madame Frances Calderón de la Barca

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Life in Mexico

By: Madame Frances Calderón de la Barca

Originally published in 1843, Fanny Calderon de la Barca, gives her spirited account of living in Mexico–from her travels with her husband through Mexico as the Spanish diplomat to the daily struggles with finding good help–Fanny gives the reader an enlivened picture of the life and times of a country still struggling with independence.

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Page Count

557

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520907019

ISBN 13

9780520907010

Life in Mexico

By: Madame Calderón de la Barca (Frances Erskine Inglis)

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Life in Mexico

By: Madame Calderón de la Barca (Frances Erskine Inglis)

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Page Count

560

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520046625

ISBN 13

9780520046627

Travels into Spain

By: Madame D'Aulnoy

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Travels into Spain

By: Madame D'Aulnoy

Of all literary fakes this is surely the most impudent, ingenious, and successful. The Comtesse D'Aulnoy was never in Spain (but) she was a born traveller. Not without reason have the editors of The Broadway Travellers included her fiction in their library of fact. For, despite its falseness, it is intellectually the real thing.' Saturday Review However her work is judged today, it seems certain that Madame D'Aulnoy was one of the most widely-read and most popular authors of her time. Seeing Spain at a strange moment in her history, it is the end of a great age. The last descendent of Charles V is king; after him the nation is destined to enter upon a new phase, under a new dynasty. After reading this journey we see and touch Spain and the reader can judge the Spanish character from a witness who saw it.

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Page Count

568

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1134285779

ISBN 13

9781134285778

The History of France

Volume 8

By: M. Guizot de Witt, Madame Guizot

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The History of France

Volume 8

By: M. Guizot de Witt, Madame Guizot

Reprint of the original, first published in 1869.

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Page Count

522

Publisher

BoD – Books on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

3752500018

ISBN 13

9783752500011

Book's by Madame Sevigne

Selected Letters

Selected Letters

The Princess of Cleves

The Princess of Cleves

The Princesse De Cleves

The Princesse De Cleves

Dialogues and Addresses

Dialogues and Addresses

Life in Mexico

Life in Mexico

Life in Mexico

Life in Mexico

Travels into Spain

Travels into Spain

The History of France

The History of France

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