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Madeleine de Scudéry (; 15 November 1607 – 2 June 1701), often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry (), was a French writer. Her works demonstrate such comprehensive knowledge of
ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...
that it is suspected she had received instruction in Greek and Latin. In 1637, following the death of her uncle, Scudéry established herself in Paris with her brother, Georges de Scudéry, who became a playwright. Madeleine often used her older brother's name, George, to publish her works. She was at once admitted to the Hôtel de Rambouillet coterie of préciosité, and afterwards established a
salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
of her own under the title of the ''Société du samedi'' (''Saturday Society''). For the last half of the 17th century, under the
pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...
of Sapho or her own name, she was acknowledged as the first
bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' (also spaced blue-stocking or blue stockings) is a Pejorative, derogatory term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic El ...
of France and of the world. She formed a close romantic relationship with
Paul Pellisson Paul Pellisson (30 October 1624 – 7 February 1693) was a French author, associated with the Baroque '' Précieuses'' movement. Pellisson was born in Béziers, of a distinguished Calvinist family. He studied law at Toulouse, and practised at ...
which was only ended by his death in 1693. She never married.


Biography

Born at
Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
, Normandy, in northern France, she was without fortune, but she was exceedingly well-educated. Her father, captain of the port in Le Havre, died in 1613 with her mother following shortly after. Madeleine and her brother Georges de Scudéry were placed in the care of an uncle who cared for them very well. He gave Madeleine an abnormally well-rounded education: she studied writing, spelling, drawing, dancing, painting, and
needlework Needlework refers to decorative sewing and other textile arts, textile handicrafts that involve the use of a Sewing needle, needle. Needlework may also include related textile crafts like crochet (which uses a crochet hook, hook), or tatting, ( ...
. In addition, on her own, Madeleine studied agriculture, medicine, cooking, Spanish, and Italian.


Works

Her lengthy novels, such as '' Artamène, ou le Grand Cyrus'' (10 vols., 1648–53), ''Clélie'' (10 vols., 1654–61), ''Ibrahim, ou l'illustre Bassa'' (4 vols., 1641), ''Almahide, ou l'esclave reine'' (8 vols., 1661–63) were the delight of Europe, commended by other literary figures such as
Madame de Sévigné Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution) Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement ...
. ''Artamène'', which contains about 2.1 million words, ranks among the longest novels ever published. Her novels derive their length from endless conversations and, as far as incidents go, successive abductions of the heroines, conceived and told decorously. Contemporary readers also enjoyed these novels because they gave a glimpse into the life of important society figures. These figures were often disguised as Persian, Greek, and Roman warriors and maidens. In fact, Scudéry created the
roman à clef A ''roman à clef'' ( ; ; ) is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people and the "key" is the relationship between the non-fiction and the fiction. This m ...
to provide a forum for her thinly veiled fiction featuring political and public figures. ''Les Femmes Illustres'' (1642) addresses itself to women and defends education, rather than the beauty or cosmetic, as a means of social mobility for women. This text was a means to justify women's participation in rhetoric and literary culture. It uses women speakers as models for the speeches, including
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
of Egypt. In ''Les Femmes Illustres'' (1642), ''Conversations Sur Divers Sujets'' (1680), and ''Conversations Nouvelles sur Divers Sujets, Dediees Au Roy'' (1684), Madeleine de Scudéry adapted classical rhetorical theory from
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
,
Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...
,
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
, and the
sophists A sophist () was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics and mathematics. They taught ''arete'', "virtue" or "excellen ...
to a theory of salon conversation and letter writing. Scudéry's Conversations Sur Divers Sujets, included
dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...
s covering "Conversation," "The Art of Speaking," "Raillery," "Invention," and "The Manner of Writing Letters." This text offers the rhetoric of salon conversation and model scenarios where women take intellectual control of the conversation. Other works devoted to conversations, pertaining to the education of women include: "The Slave Queen" (1660), "Mathilda of Aguilar, a Spanish Tale," (1667), and "The Versailles Promenade, or the Tale of Celanire" (1669). These covered the art of speaking,
invention An invention is a unique or novelty (patent), novel machine, device, Method_(patent), method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It m ...
, the manner of writing letters, and scenarios where women had control of the intellectual conversation. Scudéry's novels are usually set in the classical world or "the Orient", but their language and action reflect fashionable ideas of the 17th century, and the characters can be identified with Mademoiselle de Scudéry's contemporaries. In ''Clélie'', Herminius represents Paul Pellisson; Scaurus and Lyriane were Paul Scarron and his wife (who became Mme de Maintenon); and in the description of Sapho in vol. 10 of ''Le Grand Cyrus'' the author paints herself. In ''Clélie'', Scudéry invented the famous '' Carte de Tendre'', a map of an Arcadia where the geography is all based around the theme of love: the river of Inclination flows past the villages of "Billet Doux" ( love letter), "Petits Soins" (Little Trinkets) and so forth. Scudéry was a skilled conversationalist; several volumes purporting to report her conversations upon various topics were published during her lifetime. She had a distinct vocation as a pedagogue.


Later years

Madeleine survived her brother by more than thirty years, and in her later days published numerous volumes of conversations, to a great extent extracted from her novels, thus forming a kind of anthology of her work. Scudéry was deaf for the last 40 years of her life. She outlived her vogue to some extent, but retained a circle of friends, like Marie Dupré, to whom she was always the "incomparable Sapho." Her ''Life and Correspondence'' was published at Paris by MM. Rathery and Boutron in 1873.


Legacy

Madeleine de Scudéry was part of a movement in the late Renaissance in England and France where women used classical rhetorical theory for their own. She revised discourse to be modeled on conversation rather than public speaking, favoring that as a means of
rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
, the speaker in the salon built on the ideas of the speaker before them, opting for consensus rather than argument. She is one of the central figures associated with the "
salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
" conversation and letter writing.


Cultural references

Controversial in her own era, Mademoiselle de Scudéry was satirized by
Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
in his plays '' Les Précieuses ridicules'' (1659) and '' Les Femmes savantes'' (1672) and by
Antoine Furetière Antoine Furetière (28 December 161914 May 1688) was a French scholar, writer, and lexicographer, known best for his satirical novel ''Scarron's City Romance'', and also his famous Dictionnaire universel . He was expelled from the Académie F ...
in his ''Roman Bourgeois'' (1666). The 19th century German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote what is usually referred to as the first German-language detective story, featuring Scudéry as the central figure. " Das Fräulein von Scuderi" (Mademoiselle de Scudery) is still widely read today, and is the origin of the "Cardillac syndrome" in psychology. Mademoiselle de Scudéry is also featured prominently in ''Madeleine: One of Love's Jansenists'', a novel published in 1919 by modernist writer Hope Mirrlees. The novel is set in and around the literary circles of the 17th Century
Précieuses The ''Précieuses'' ( , i.e. "preciousness") was a 17th-century French literary style and movement. The main features of this style are the refined language of aristocratic salons, periphrases, hyperbole, and puns on the theme of gallant l ...
. The protagonist, a young woman named Madeleine Troqueville, becomes enamored of Mademoiselle de Scudéry, who snubs young Madeleine. It has been suggested that the novel is a
roman à clef A ''roman à clef'' ( ; ; ) is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people and the "key" is the relationship between the non-fiction and the fiction. This m ...
with
Natalie Clifford Barney Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) was an American writer who hosted a salon (gathering), literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors thro ...
portrayed as Mademoiselle de Scudéry.


Literature

*Oliver Mallick, "Le héros de toutes les saisons": Herrscherlob und politische Reflexionen in Madeleine de Scudérys Roman "La Promenade de Versailles" (1669), in: ''Zeitschrift für historische Forschung,'' vol. 41, no. 4 (2014), p. 619–686. * Sainte-Beuve, ''Causeries du lundi,'' volume IV (Paris, 1857–62) *Rathery and Boutron, ''Mademoiselle de Scudéry: Sa vie et sa correspondance'' (Paris, 1873) * Victor Cousin, ''La société française au XVIIe siècle'' (sixth edition, two volumes, Paris, 1886) *André Le Breton, ''Le roman au XVIIe siècle'' (Paris, 1890) * AG Mason, ''The Women of the French Salons'' (New York, 1891) *Georges Mongrédien, ''Madeleine de Scudéry et son salon: d'après des documents inédits'', 1946 *Dorothy McDougall, ''Madeleine de Scudéry: her romantic life and death'', 1972 *Alain Niderst, ''Madeleine de Scudéry, Paul Pellisson et leur monde'', 1976 Summaries of the stories and keys to the characters may be found in Heinrich Körting, ''Geschichte des französischen Romans im 17ten Jahrhundert'' (second edition, Oppeln, 1891). New International Encyclopedia


References


Citations


Sources

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External links

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The Grand Cyrus, Clelia, and Ibraheem the Illustrious Bassa

Project Continua: Biography of Madeleine de Scudéry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scudery, Madeleine de 1607 births 1701 deaths Writers from Le Havre French women novelists 17th-century French women writers French salon-holders 17th-century French novelists