This biography of Mme de Sevigne brings to life the world of seventeenth-century France, a mother and her daughter, a writer and her brilliant letters. The passion and the pathos of this correspondence brings us as close as we can come to the mind of a woman in the court of Louis XIV.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
Vividly evokers [Mmd de Sevigne], her intimate circle, and her era in this scintillating enjoyable book grounded in good scholarship.
(Edmund Fuller Wall Street Journal )
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Madame de Sévigné: A Life and Letters,
By Linda Madeleine (Benicia, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Madame de Sevigne: A Life and Letters (Paperback)
Frances Mossiker has given us a wonderful compilation of noted epistolarian, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal(1626-1696), Madame de Sévigné's letters. Seventeenth-century France will come vibrantly alive while you read this book. Ms. Mossiker has meticulously researched this comprehensive biography. I especially enjoyed the intimate look at her royal and commoner friends. Madame was friends with many of the brilliant thinkers of the day such as ballet writer Benserade and fable writer La Fontaine. Her descriptions of life at the court of Louis XIV are fascinating. Most of the letters written were from Mother to Daughter. Their sometimes tense relationship is an engrossing psychological study. After a prolonged absence Madame de Sévigné learns her daughter is coming to visit: "So you are coming!" she writes. "And I will have the pleasure of welcoming you, embracing you, giving you a thousand little tokens of my love and solicitude. Anticipation fills my heart with a sweet,deep joy..." A thoroughly enjoyable, charming, divine book. Not to be missed! (Musee Carnavalet in Paris is where Madame de Sévigné lived for almost twenty years. The building has been converted to a museum with a wonderful section devoted to her.)
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful biography,
By Musette (Eastern US) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Madame de Sevigne: A Life and Letters (Paperback)
I don't think there could be a better book of the life and times of Madame de Sevigne. Reading the letters alone is not enough, explanation is necessary. This book fulfills this need. All those confusing names are explained. The Madame was probably exactly the person she appears to us. This is a great book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A View of the Court of Louis XIV,
By
This review is from: Madame de Sevigne: A Life and Letters (Paperback)
Originally, I'd intended to skim this well-researched book, while searching for background information for my own historical novel set during the reign of Louis XIV, but it immediately drew me in. After all of these years, I still consider it a wonderful look into the life of a popular court "celebrity" and her relationship, mostly through letters, with her too-distant daughter. Because she wrote to entertain her daughter, we know of the rumors and gossip that swept through the court about The Affair of Poisons and Louis' relationships with his old mistress, Madam de Montespan, and his very young new and last mistress, the duchesse de Fontanges. Mossiker's translations of the letters show the vivaciousness and other emotions of Mme de Sevigne as her daughter would have viewed them.Author of The Wolf's Sun A Devil Singing Small
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
On the sword side, Madame de Sevigne could trace her Burgundian forebears-and did so, proudly-back into the eleventh and twelfth centuries, into what the official Court genealogists referred to as "The Mists of Time" (without which certificate of ancientness, a nobleman was unacceptable in the inner circles of the Court of France). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dear bonne, very dear darling, cannot accustom myself, very dear one, thousand greetings, ooo livres Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mme de Grignan, Les Rochers, Count de Grignan, Monsieur de Grignan, Mme de Coulanges, Count de Bussy, Mme de La Fayette, Countess de Grignan, Mme de Chaulnes, Monsieur de Coulanges, Bien Bon, Count de Guitaut, Marquis de Grignan, Mme de Montespan, Duke de Chaulnes, Chevalier de Grignan, Mme de Guitaut, Monsieur the Chevalier, Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld, Pauline de Simiane, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Mme de Lavardin, Monsieur de Chaulnes, Mme de Maintenon, Cardinal de Retz New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
On the sword side, Madame de Sevigne could trace her Burgundian forebears-and did so, proudly-back into the eleventh and twelfth centuries, into what the official Court genealogists referred to as "The Mists of Time" (without which certificate of ancientness, a nobleman was unacceptable in the inner circles of the Court of France). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dear bonne, very dear darling, cannot accustom myself, very dear one, thousand greetings, ooo livres Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mme de Grignan, Les Rochers, Count de Grignan, Monsieur de Grignan, Mme de Coulanges, Count de Bussy, Mme de La Fayette, Countess de Grignan, Mme de Chaulnes, Monsieur de Coulanges, Bien Bon, Count de Guitaut, Marquis de Grignan, Mme de Montespan, Duke de Chaulnes, Chevalier de Grignan, Mme de Guitaut, Monsieur the Chevalier, Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld, Pauline de Simiane, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Mme de Lavardin, Monsieur de Chaulnes, Mme de Maintenon, Cardinal de Retz New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 6
books:
See all 6 books this book cites
2
books
cite this book:
- Remembrance of Things Past Volumes 1-3 Box Set by Marcel Proust on page 82, and page 83
- The Death of the Moth and Other Essays by Virginia Woolf in Front Matter
- Holy Scripture: The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith, Volume III: The Writings of the Church Fathers Affirming the Reformation Principle of Sola Scriptura. by David T. King on page 380
- The Amenities of Book Collecting And Kindred Affections by Edward A. Newton in Back Matter
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Perennial Classics) by Thornton Wilder on page 311
See all 6 books this book cites
- Thomas Jefferson: A Life by Willard Sterne Randall in Back Matter
- Thomas Jefferson: A Life by Willard Sterne Randall in Back Matter
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
