Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (25 October 1713 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

- 7 December 1792 in

), whose maiden name was Laboras de Mézières, was a French actress and novelist.

Early years

She was born in

in 1713.

Career

In 1735, she married Antoine François Riccoboni, a comedian and dramatist, from whom she soon separated. She herself was an actress and had moderate success on the stage. Madame Riccoboni's work is among the most eminent examples of the "sensibility" novel; among the parallels cited in English literature are works by

Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768), was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' and ''A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'', published ...

and

Samuel Richardson Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: ''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and ''The History of ...

. A still nearer parallel may be found in the work of

Henry Mackenzie Henry Mackenzie FRSE (August 1745 – 14 January 1831, born and died in Edinburgh) was a Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer sometimes seen as the Addison of the North. While remembered mostly as an author, his main income came from legal role ...

. Her works were also described as "letter novel" containing the negotiations of femininity, desire, and ambition. She has influenced other writers, including

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (; 18 October 1741 – 5 September 1803) was a French novelist, official, Freemason and army general, best known for writing the epistolary novel '' Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (''Dangerous Liaisons'' ...

and his literary aesthetics. She obtained a small pension from the crown, but the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

deprived her of it, and she died in Paris on 7 December 1792 in great poverty.

Writer

Riccoboni's first novel was ''Les Lettres de Mistris Fanni Butlerd'' (1757), which explored the functional exclusion of women from the public sphere. She is also noted for publishing ''Les Lettres de Juliette Catesby'' in 1759. Its translation by

Frances Brooke Frances Brooke ( Moore; 12 January 1724 – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist, essayist, playwright and translator. Hers was the first English novel known to have been written in Canada. Biography Frances Moore was born in Claypole, ...

into English the following year became an immediate success in England so that it went through six editions. Apart from authoring the works listed below, Riccoboni was the editor of a periodical, ''L'Abeille'' (1761), wrote a novel (1762) on the subject of Fielding's ''Amelia'', and supplied in 1765 a continuation (but not the conclusion sometimes erroneously ascribed to her) of

Marivaux Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing nume ...

unfinished Unfinished may refer to: *Unfinished creative work, a work which a creator either chose not to finish or was prevented from finishing. Music * Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) "Unfinished" * ''Unfinished'' (album), 2011 album by American singer Jor ...

''Marianne''. Riccoboni also corresponded with Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, author of ''Les Liaisons Dangeureuses'', as well as David Hume and the theater celebrity David Garrick (see J.C. Nicholls, ed. ''Madame Riccoboni’s letters to David Hume, David Garrick, and Sir Robert Liston : 1764-1783'', Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation, 1976). Her letters to these personalities, including the diplomat

Robert Liston Robert Liston (28 October 1794 – 7 December 1847) was a British surgeon. Liston was noted for his speed and skill in an era prior to anaesthetics, when speed made a difference in terms of pain and survival. He was the first Professor of Cli ...

, provided an account of life in France during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Some of her better known works are: *''Lettres de mistriss Fanni Butlerd'' (1757) *the remarkable ''Histoire du marquis de Cressy'' (1758) *''Les Lettres de Juliette Catesby'' (1759), an

epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...

appreciated by Voltaire and translated into English by

in 1760 *''l'Histoire d'Ernestine'' (1765), which La Harpe thought her masterpiece *three series of ''Lettres'' in the names of: **''Adelaide de Dammartin (comtesse de Sancerre)'' (2 vol., 1766) **''Elizabeth Sophie de Valliere'' (2 vol., 1772) **''Milord Rivers'' (2 vol., 1776)

References

Sources

For a more complete survey of literature on Mme Riccoboni, see th
bibliography by the ''Association Riccoboni''
* Jan Herman, Kris Peeters and Paul Pelckmans, eds. ''Mme Riccoboni, romancière, épistolière, traductrice, colloque de l'université de Louvain-Anvers (2006)'' Louvain; Paris: Dudley, 2007. * Annie Cointre, Florence Lautel-Ribstein, Annie Rivara, eds. ''La traduction du discours amoureux (1660-1830)''

2006. (Two papers pertain to Riccoboni: Jan Herman and Beatrijs Vanacker, 'Madame Riccoboni travestie par Casanova : de nouveaux habits pour Juliette Catesby', and Raeleen Chai-Elsholz, 'Textual Allusions and Narrative Voice in the ''Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby'' and its English Translation'.) * Brigitte Diaz and Jurgen Siess, eds. ''L'épistolaire au féminin, correspondances de femmes, colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (2003)''. Presses universitaires de Caen, 2006. * Suzan Van Dijk, 'Fictions revues et corrigées : Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni en face de la critique contemporaine', in ''Journalisme et fiction au 18e siècle'', eds. Malcolm Cook and Annie Jourdan. Bern: Peter Lang, 1999. * Susan Sniader Lanser, ''Fictions of Authority. Women Writers and Narrative Voice''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992. (See esp. chapter 2: 'The Rise of the Novel, The Fall of the Voice: Juliette Catesby's Silencing', and chapter 3: 'In a Class by Herself: Self-Silencing in Riccoboni's ''Abeille.) * Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook, 'Going Public: The Letter and the Contract in Fanni Butlerd', ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 24.1 (Fall 1990): 21-45. *

Joan Hinde Stewart Joan Hinde Stewart (born 1944) is an American academic administrator who served as the 19th president of Hamilton College (New York), Hamilton College in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York from 2003 to 2016. Early life and educa ...

, 'Sex, Text, and Exchange: ''Lettres neuchâteloises'' and ''Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby, ''Eighteenth-Century Life'' 13.1 (Feb. 1989): 60-68. * Andrée Demay, ''Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni : ou De la pensée féministe chez une romancière du XVIIIe siècle''. Paris: La Pensée Universelle, 1977. * Joan Hinde Stewart, ''The Novels of Mme Riccoboni''. Chapel Hill: North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 1976. * Kenneth R. Umland, ''Madame Riccoboni et Diderot : un débat sur l’art théâtral au dix-huitième siècle''. .l.s.n. 1975. * Emily A. Crosby, ''Une romancière oubliée, Mme Riccoboni : sa vie, ses œuvres, sa place dans la littérature anglaise et française du XVIIIe siècle''. Paris: F. Rieder, 1924; Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1970.

External links