Born: 18 March 1634 (baptised), France
Died: 25 May 1693
Country most active: France
Also known as: Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne
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:
Marie-Madeleine, Comtesse de La Fayette (1634-1692), French novelist, and social leader, daughter of Marc de la Vergue, Governor of Havre. She studied Greek, Latin and Italian, and inspired in one of her tutors, Gilles de Ménage, an enthusiastic admiration which he expressed in verse in three or four languages. Her union with the Comte de la Fayette was a marriage of convenience, while in 1665 she began an intimacy with the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, then engaged on his Maximes. The constancy and affection that marked this liaison on both sides justified it in the eyes of society, and when in 1680 La Rochefoucauld died Mme. de La Fayette received the sincerest sympathy. Her literary salon was the most aristocratic in Paris. In 1662 her first novel, La Princesse de Montpousier appeared, this was followed by Zayde, and in 1678 she published her masterpiece, “La Princesse de Cleves,” which may be called the first of the modem novels of sentiment. The character of her work and her history have combined to give an impression of melancholy and sweetness that only represents one side, for a correspondence brought to light comparatively recently showed her as the acute diplomatic agent of Jeanne de Nemours, Duchess of Savoy, and that she played an important political role at the court of Louis XIV.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Of a noble family, Madame de La Fayette was renowned for her literary talent and for her wit. Menage, La Fontaine and many others were frequent guests at her home. La Rochefoucauld said of her that her judgment was far above her wit and that she loved truth in everything, and was without dissimulation.
These traits of character, alone, would give her a place of honor among the most remarkable women of the century. Her masterpieces, La Princesse de Cleve, Zaide and many others bring realism to the novel. She was the precursor of the psychological fiction writers of today. She has, also, left Memoires which her sober and delicate way of writing render exceedingly attractive. She studied Greek, Latin and Italian. Her literary salon was the most aristocratic in Paris. Correspondence brought to light comparatively recently showed her as the acute diplomatic agent of the Duchess of Savoy, and that she played an important role at the court of Louis XIV.