MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ: A Life and Letters

by Frances Mossiker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 6, 1983

Mossiker (Napoleon and Josephine, The Affair of the Poisons) calls Madame de SÉvignÉ ""France's First Lady of Letters""--a limp pun, but a reasonable judgment. And here, in a chatty, thoroughly researched (if non-scholarly) biography, Mossiker tells the story of this classic figure (1626-96) with frequent, long excerpts from her own new translations of the letters themselves--relatively little-known to Americans, says Mossiker, because of the ""lack-luster, literal, stilted"" nature of previous translations. Marie de Rabutin-Chantal was a beautiful, charming, well-educated aristocrat who lost her father at the age of 18 months and her mother at seven, and then had the misfortune of marrying (at 18) a hot-blooded, irresponsible Breton nobleman, Henri, Marquis de SÉvignÉ. His repeated infidelities ultimately led to a fatal duel, and on her 25th birthday the Marquise found herself a widow with two small children to care for. She never remarried, devoting most of her remaining years to the great passion of her life: her rather enigmatic daughter FranÇoise-MarguÉrite, later Madame de Grignan. The two women exchanged thousands of letters--many of them now lost, including practically everything written by Madame de Grignan. And this correspondence established the mother's reputation as a brilliant observer of the social scene, a spontaneously graceful prose stylist, and a fascinating human being--warm, frank, shrewd, utterly natural--while making the daughter's reputation (with some help from Saint-Simon) as cold and difficult. Mossiker challenges this generally accepted view of Madame de Grignan, arguing that the poor woman had to develop some sort of defense against her mother's overwhelming, obsessive attention. On the other hand, Mossiker adds little--and nothing by way of literary analysis--to the traditional picture of Madame de SÉvignÉ. Her praise of SÉvignÉ is almost unstinted and her identification with her so complete that, for example, she ignores the naked imperialism and personal ambition motivating the war efforts of SÉvignÉ's blindly adored Louis XIV; she does reluctantly note Madame's ""callousness or indifference to human suffering""--particularly in regard to atrocities against the poor in Lower Brittany--but quickly offers an array of possible excuses. And, if Mossiker's presentation of le grand siècle will leave better-informed readers impatient (she stops to define lettre de cachet, noblesse de robe, etc.), her large and ably translated selection from SÉvignÉs letters is quite welcome. Too long for a casual audience and too uncritical for an academic one, then--but a solid, energetic work of serious popular biography.

Pub Date: Oct. 6, 1983

ISBN: 0231061536

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION