320
pages, Penguin Classics, ISBN-13: 978-0140444056
One
of the great defining moments of 17th Century French literature was
when Madame de Sévigné’s daughter left Paris with her new husband for a life in
the provinces, thus launching one of the great correspondences in history. Always
the doting mother, Madame de Sévigné – or, should I say, Marie de
Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné – was important enough to be close to the
center of events during the reign of Louis XIV, and this status allowed her
access to the inner circles of power in Paris and, thus, provide an invaluable
record of the day’s events.
Although
the letters of Madame de Sévigné can be regarded on one level as a series of
letters to relatives and friends, they represent on another level essential
documents and highly literate essays on a wide variety of subjects relating to
17th Century France. A major source of debate among literary critics
has been whether she should be considered as simply a letter writer or as an epistolary
author: some view her work as purely private communication between individuals
whereas others see the letters as one of the few means available to a woman at
that time to express herself as a writer; thus, by writing to her daughter
(they argue) she was able to create a certain kind of textual persona.
Whichever way we may view her output, it is incontrovertible that the acuteness
of her observation permeates all the letters. In this context, although she
does not take up and pursue subjects in the comprehensive way many essayists
do, there are three categories of observation to which her letters give rise:
historical, literary, and social.
Of
the historical letters, the most significant are the 14 letters written between
November 1664 and January 1665 to Simon Arnauld, Marquis de Pomponne, on the
trial of their mutual friend Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet had been Minister of
Finance under Cardinal Mazarin, but, after the latter’s death in 1661, Colbert
(the future Minister of Commerce and Internal Affairs) collaborated with Louis
XIV to arrest Fouquet on the charge of financial maladministration. Throughout
the letters, Madame de Sévigné displays a broad knowledge of contemporary
French literature, although her literary judgment does not always concur with
that of posterity (as is shown in her unfavorable comments on some plays by
Racine). Madame de Sévigné’s social observation is perhaps most particularly
acute, as she is always keen to point out the absurdity of certain appearances
and pretensions.
Madame
de Sévigné has been widely praised, for both the seeming spontaneity and the
extreme artfulness of her style. In many ways her writing can be compared to
that of the theater: she creates vivid scenarios in which several characters
play different roles, she herself operating as both spectator and actress. In
the Fouquet letters, for example, she describes the actions and words of the
leading participants as well as the response of the onlookers, including
herself. But she can also be viewed as an essayist in her own right, as it was
through her letters that she was able to discuss and comment upon the society
in which she lived.
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