Charlotte Aïssé (a corruption of Haïdé; – 13 March 1733), French letter-writer, was the daughter of a Circassian chief, and was born about 1694.

Life

Her father's palace was pillaged by the Turks, and as a child of four years old she was sold to the comte

Charles de Ferriol Charles de Ferriol (1652–1722) was a French ambassador sent by Louis XIV to the Ottoman Empire from 1692 to 1711, during the rule of Sultan Ahmed III.''Napoleon and Persia: Franco-Persian relations under the First Empire'' Iradj Amini p.1/ref> A ...

, the French ambassador at Constantinople. She was brought up in Paris by Ferriol's sister-in-law, Marie-Angélique de Tencin, with her own sons, (1697–1774) and d'Argental (1700–1788). Her great beauty and romantic history made her the fashion, and she attracted the notice of the regent, Philip II, Duke of Orléans, whose offers she had the strength of mind to refuse. She formed a deep and lasting attachment to Blaise-Marie d'Aydie (1692–1761), a

knight of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

, by whom she had a daughter. She died in Paris.

''Lettres de Mademoiselle Aïssé à Madame C…''

Her letters to her friend Julie Calandrini (; 1668–1754), were first published with notes attributed to Voltaire (1787). They were republished the following year and throughout the 19th century. Their recipient was not correctly identified until the 1806 edition. Letter VII, dated Paris, 1727, was adapted by

Leonora Blanche Alleyne Leonora Blanche "Nora" Lang (''née'' Alleyne; 8 March 1851 – 10 July 1933) was an English author, editor, and translator. She is best known as variously the translator, collaborator and writer of ''Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, The Fairy Books' ...

as ''The Man in White'' and illustrated by Henry Justice Ford in '' The Red True Story Book'' (1895). It has been argued that the letters were heavily rewritten before their posthumous publication, based on stylistic differences with rare surviving manuscripts.

Mlle Aïssé in fiction

Mlle Aïssé may have inspired Abbé Prévost's ' (1740) and Claire de Duras's ''

Ourika ''Ourika'' is an 1823 novel by Claire de Duras, originally published anonymously. Overview ''Ourika'' is a story based on the life of a woman who was purchased as a child (in or around 1786) by the Chevalier de Boufflers, the colonial admini ...

'' (1823). She has been the subject of three plays: * 1854: ''Mademoiselle Aïssé'', a play in 5 acts, in prose, by and Paul Foucher * 1871:
Mademoiselle Aïssé
', a play in 4 acts, in verse, by Louis Bouilhet, in which her character was played by

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...

* 1898: ''Aïssé'', comedy in 5 acts, in verse, by under the pen name François Dejoux She was also the inspiration for Rosa Campbell Praed's historical novel, ''The Romance of Mademoiselle Aïssé'' (1910).Rosa Campbell Praed, ''The Romance of Mademoiselle Aïssé'' (London, 1910

Bibliography

Amelia Gere Mason Amelia Gere Mason (1831–1923) was an American writer. Mason née Gere was born on September 23, 1831 in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was married to Alvin A. Mason. Gere wrote for the ''Atlantic Monthly'' magazine. She was the author of ''T ...

, ''The Women of the French Salons'' (1891), ch.11

* Edmund Gosse, ''French Profiles'' (1905), p.35-67. * Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, ''Portraits and Backgrounds: Hrotsvitha, Aphra Behn, Aïssé, Rosalba Carriera'' (1917). *

J. Christopher Herold Jean Christopher Herold (11 May 1919 — 10 December 1964) was a Czechosloavk American university press editor and author from the 1940s to 1960s. While holding an editorship for Columbia University Press from 1946 to 1956, Herold edited ''Columbia ...

, ''Love in five temperaments'' (1961). * Amy J. Ransom, ″Mademoiselle Aïssé: inspiration for Claire de Duras's ''Ourika''?″, ''Romance Quarterly'' 46:2 (1999), p.84-98. * Valerie Lastinger, ″Charlotte Elisabeth Aïssé″, in ''Writings by pre-revolutionary French women'', ed. Anne R. Larsen and Colette H. Winn (1999) vol.2, p.543–58.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aisse, Charlotte 1694 births 1733 deaths French essayists French letter writers Women letter writers 18th-century French writers 18th-century French women writers French slaves People from the Ottoman Empire of Circassian descent French women essayists 18th-century essayists Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to France 18th-century slaves Slaves from the Ottoman Empire 18th-century letter writers