Background
She was born at Paris, France in March 1634. She was a daughter of the Pioche de la Vergne family, of the lesser nobility.
( The Princess of Cleves, often called the first modern F...)
The Princess of Cleves, often called the first modern French novel, was published anonymously in 1678 and was received with enthusiasm by its contemporary audience. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is that of Thomas Sargent Perry's 1892 translation, indisputably the translation that has best served readers in English. Reprinted repeatedly over the last one hundred years, the Perry translation is a classic in its own right. After careful review, the editor has corrected minor infelicities of translation (necessary to remain true to Lafayette's text) and updated vocabulary. To experience the innovation of Lafayette's writing, it is necessary to understand the critical resistance it met with in seventeenth-century France. "Contemporary Reactions" includes five assessments of The Princess of Cleves?by Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette herself, Roger de Bussy-Rabutin and Marie de Sévigné, Jean-Baptiste-Henry du Trousset de Valincour, Jean-Antoine de Charnes, and Du Plaisir?following its controversial publication. John Lyons's translations for this Norton Critical Edition make these reactions available in English for the first time. "Criticism" includes eleven modern studies of the novel, five of which appear here in English for the first time, by Jean Fabre, Michel Butor, Jean Rousset, Helen Karen Kaps, Gérard Genette, Roger Francillon, Kurt Weinberg, Peggy Kamuf, Erica Harth, Joan DeJean, and Laurence Gregario. A Glossary of Characters and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
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She was born at Paris, France in March 1634. She was a daughter of the Pioche de la Vergne family, of the lesser nobility.
She studied as a girl with the tutor and writer Gilles Ménage, sharing lessons with another future literary figure, Mme. de Sévigné.
As the influence of the stylishly affected salon of the Hôtel de Rambouillet declined, de La Fayette set up her own salon, the most notable personage of which was her admirer La Rochefoucauld, the brilliant epigrammatist. After La Rochefoucauld's death in 1680 and that of her husband in 1683, she withdrew from society to spend her last days in pious reflection.
De La Fayette's masterpiece was La Princesse de Clèves, first published anonymously in 1678. Often termed inexactly the first psychological novel, the work recounts the dilemma of the Princess when she confesses to her husband that she loves the Duc de Nemours, though she has remained a faithful wife. When the Prince of Clèves dies, the Princess refuses to marry Nemours and goes into a convent. Other works by de La Fayette include: La Princesse de Montpensier (1662); Zayde (1670); numerous letters; and the posthumous Historie de Mme. Henriette d'Angleterre (1720) and La Comtesse de Tende (1724).
( The Princess of Cleves, often called the first modern F...)
In 1665 she married François Motier, Comte de La Fayette, by whom she had two sons.
