Born: 5 February 1626, France
Died: 17 April 1696
Country most active: France
Also known as: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Madame de Sévigné (1626 –1696) lived over three hundred years ago, and yet her letters are still assigned in French classes and read by Francophiles to this day. Her letters are set during the back drop of the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King.” The tragic events of her parents’ deaths (one following shortly after the other) led to a fortunate change of circumstances for nine-year-old Sévigné. Going to live with her uncle, Christophe de Coulanges, the Abbé of Livry, she was given a rare education as a girl that included multiple languages and a solid foundation in the humanities. A brief and unhappy marriage provided her with two children whom she prized above all else — particularly her daughter, Françoise-Marguerite. A gifted chronicler, she was also prolific. She produced letters a few times a week that averaged up to 30 pages most of them starting in 1671 when her daughter married and relocated to Provence. Suffering in the absence of her daughter, she began her now legendary correspondences. She wrote to both children as a loving mother with the standard concerns about their partners and financial matters. But, she also wrote as a savvy socialite who was connected to the court and knew much about news and gossip. She was a popular figure at Versailles — giving her knowledge of racy court intrigue — but she also had a romantic side that is illustrated by some poetic contemplations about nature and and spirituality. As a result, the content of her letters spanned an impressive range from mundane gripes about her own increasing frailty, to witty remarks that demonstrated the extent of her familiarity with classic French writers. In total she wrote approximately 1,799 letters over her lifetime.
Letters of this style were often meant to be read aloud, and as a result, Madame de Sévigné adopted a lively conversational style. Although some of her views on politics can seem harsh today (she was a devout Catholic and was therefore sympathetic to the expulsion of French Protestants known as Huguenots), she was a product of the society around her and was not exposed to the variety of perspectives that would have been likely to broaden her mind. Her letters offer a rare combination of humor and historical fact that has captivated casual readers and historians for three centuries and counting.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Madame de Sévigné, a French writer, celebrated for her Letters, chiefly written to her daughter. Her maiden name was Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, and at eighteen she married the Marquis de Sévigné, by whom she had a son and a daughter.
The marquis, in 1651, was killed in a duel by a rival in a sordid intrigue, and Mme. de Sévigné at the moment of her widowhood was but twenty-five, brilliant in her beauty and fascination. Yet she never married again, and without hesitation embraced the holy vocation of motherhood to which she was to give such complete and exquisite impression.
After her daughter’s marriage to Count de Grignan, Governor of Provence, Mme de Sévigné began to write those famous letters from Paris which have come down to us; letters unrivaled for their fresh charm, shrewd wit, and easy gayety [sic] of heart. They form an almost complete and familiar chronicle of the court and high society of the time (1669 – 1695), during the reign of Louis XIV.
Thomas Davidson says:
“Madame de Sévigné’s twenty-five years of letters to her daughter reveal the inner history of the time in wonderful detail, but the most interesting thing in the letters remains herself. In the midst of an age of gilded corruption, her name remains without a stain. Her heart was occupied by an intense devotion to her children, and a warmth of friendship almost beyond example. For no one ever had so many and such devoted friends – no woman ever knew like her how to transform a lover into a friend.”
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Madame de Sevigne was early left an orphan and married when she was eighteen, becoming a widow when she was twenty-five. Her love for her daughter, the Countess de Grignan, is one of the most famous examples of maternal devotion in history. It was this daughter who was the recipient of the greater part of those letters which brought Madame de Sevigne fame as an epistolary writer. It is to be remembered that, aside from the glory which the letters brought her, she set a wonderful example by proving the possibility of making life enjoyable to those to whom happiness was denied. A philosopher, she had a great love of life, and her pleasant disposition and kind heart made her many friends. These qualities, added to her talent and to her gift as a grande-dame, give her a place of honor among the most charming people of the XVIIth century. Her letters are still read in French schools. The secret of her abiding popularity lies, perhaps, in her belief that “The true mark of a good heart is its capacity for loving.”