Selected Letters

by Madame de Sévigné, Leonard Tancock (Translator)

One of the world's greatest correspondents, Madame de Sevigne (1626-96) paints an extraordinarily vivid picture of France at the time of Louis XIV, in eloquent letters written throughout her life to family and friends. A significant figure in French society and literary circles, whose close friends included Madame de La Fayette and La Rochefoucauld, she reflected on both significant historical events and personal issues, and in this selection of the most significant letters, spanning almost fifty years, she is by turns humorous and melancholic, profound and superficial. Whether describing the new plays of Racine and Moliere, speculating on court scandals including the intrigues of the King's mistresses or relating her own family concerns, Madame de Sevigne provides throughout an intriguing portrait of the lost age of Le Roi Soleil.

Genres: Classics, History, Nonfiction, France, French Literature, Biography, 17th Century

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1725

About the author

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné aka Madame de Sévigné aka Marquise de Sévigné, was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter. She is revered in France as one of the great icons of French literature.

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné alias Madame de Sévigné est une aristocrate française, connue pour ses lettres. La plupart de ses lettres, célèbres pour leur esprit et leur vivacité, étaient adressées à sa fille. Elle est vénérée en France comme l'une des grandes icônes de la littérature française.

Reviews

[Vishy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first discovered Madame de Sévigné's letters through Somerset Maugham's book 'The Razor's Edge'. In that story two of my favourite characters sit on the bank of a river everyday and read Madame de Sévigné's letters to each other. I have wanted to read those letters since that day.

I later discovered that in Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time', Madame de Sévigné's letters are the favourites of the narrator's grandmother and mother. Not surprising, as Somerset Maugham has a long record of lifting stuff from his favourite French writers. Why would an American sit on the riverbank in the French countryside and read Madame de Sévigné's letters with a French woman? I didn't think like this when I read Maugham's book. I didn't ask this logical question. I am glad I didn't. I wouldn't have discovered Madame de Sévigné otherwise.

There are 1120 known letters of Madame de Sévigné today. (or 1386 letters, depending on who is counting 😊). There are around 138 that are present in this selection. The earliest letter is dated March 1648, and the last letter is dated March 1696 – that is 50 years of correspondence right there. As these are all letters written by Madame de Sévigné to her family members and friends – her daughter is the recipient of most of her letters – they are very personal. She praises her daughter and showers affection on her in every letter and it is endearing to read. However, if Madame de Sévigné was around today, she would be shocked to know that her personal letters, have been translated into many languages and are being read by strangers in other continents. But I am glad that her granddaughter broke all kinds of etiquette and published her grandmother's correspondence. We would have lost a great literary and historical work otherwise.

There is another important feature to these letters. As Madame de Sévigné knew most of the prominent French personalities of her time – she was close friends with Madame de Lafayette and La Rochefoucauld, and she even knew the Queen and the King – her letters give a first-hand insider's view of how historical events unfolded during her time. She writes about how a corruption scandal rocked French society of those times, about how different people gain the King's favour and fall out of favour, how the King's mistresses are jealous of each other, about the different wars that the French fought and the personal impact they had on Madame de Sévigné and her friends (because friends and family members were deployed in the army on the front), the complex relationship between France and England and their royal families, her own friendship with Madame de Lafayette and La Rochefoucauld – Madame de Sévigné writes about all these and more. One of my favourite parts is that in which she compares the plays of Racine and Corneille. A new play called 'Bajazet' by Racine has just been staged and people are raving about it, and this is what Madame de Sévigné says about it initially –

"Racine has written a tragedy called 'Bajazet' which raises the roof; indeed it doesn't go from bad to worse like the others. M. de Tallard says it is as far above the plays of Corneille as those of Corneille are above those of Boyer. That is what you might call praise; it doesn't do to keep truths hidden. We shall decide later with our own eyes and ears."

Later having watched the play, she says this –

"'Bajazet' is very fine, but I do think it is a bit muddled at the end. There is plenty of passion, and not such unreasonable passion as in 'Bérénice'. But to my taste I don't think it comes up to 'Andromaque', and as for the finest plays of Corneille, they are as much above those of Racine as Racine's are above all the others."

In another letter she says this –

"Of course there are some good things in it, but nothing perfectly beautiful, nothing that carries you away, none of those speeches of Corneille that thrill you. My dear, let us be careful not to compare Racine to him, let us appreciate the difference. There are cold and weak parts, and he will never go further than 'Alexandre' and 'Andromaque'. 'Bajazet' is less good in the opinion of many people and in mine, if I may make so bold as to quote myself."

I have read neither Racine nor Corneille and so I can't really compare. But I have seen Racine's plays in the bookshop but I have never seen Corneille's plays. I don't know why. I want to read both and see whose works I like more.

Another fascinating thing I discovered from the book is about a person called Madame de Brinvilliers. Brinvilliers is accused of poisoning her family members after her lover's papers (in which he talks about that) end up in the police's hands, after he dies. There is not much evidence otherwise, against her, but still she is convicted and condemned to death. I am wondering whether Alexandre Dumas based his character Milady de Winter on Madame de Brinvilliers.

Madame de Sévigné's letters are filled with beautiful lines, words of wisdom and quotable quotes. Reading her letters is like talking to our favourite aunt who has come visiting (or we have gone visiting to her place) and Aunt Marie tells us about the people she met and the interesting things that happened recently, and it is wonderful and charming to listen to. (Aunt Marie is from Marie de Rabutin–Chantal, which is Madame de Sévigné's original name.)

Madame de Sévigné's letters cannot be read like a journal or a diary or a novel or a nonfiction book. Because they are letters, it is assumed that the recipients know the people mentioned in them. And Madame de Sévigné mentions a lot of people. It is almost like the cast of 'War and Peace'. So it is a more enriching experience to read them slowly, read more on the historical events she has written about, and research more on the personalities she has mentioned.

I loved reading the letters of Madame de Sévigné. It gives us an intimate, first-hand view of the happenings of that era. It is living history, as they say, and we get a glimpse of that in these pages through Aunt Marie's charming voice. Reading this book is a perfect example of what Yoshida Kenko says – "It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met." Talking to Aunt Marie through this book and hearing her voice through these letters was beautiful.

Have you read Madame de Sévigné's letters? What do you think about them?

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, these were utterly delightful, and I wish I had more of them. (Also, I would like to be able to read them in French someday.) They're a simply marvellous mix of court gossip, political news, and family matters, in a fluid and vivacious style, often very funny.

I laughed especially over the bit where her son discloses a recent problem with impotence: "He had found a favourable opportunity, and yet, dare I say it? His little gee-gee stopped short at Lerida. It was an extraordinary thing; the damsel had never found herself at such an entertainment in her life. The discomfited knight beat a retreat, thinking he was bewitched." (Although interestingly, she goes on to say, apparently without being upset, that her son told her that she had given him "some of the ice in [her] composition".)

Yet the letters aren't all humor; there's the sadness of death and of separation, and the melancholy of introspection, and the love of nature and literature.

[Philippe Malzieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I come to buy the house of her grand-daughter Pauline de Simiane beside Grignan. I thus read again with attention its letters in a beautiful edition XIX°. She talks about the house in a letter.
The letters of Mrs. de Sévigné are an old memory of high school. I remember of them as something of old and stiff.
I was pleased to read again them. I let myself carry by this admirable style. Splendid testimony of the Court of Louis XIV.
Perhaps I have the âge to appréciate them.

[Caroline]

I am not going to rate this because without sufficient notes it is very hard to read and judge. There must be many more astute and clever observations than I was able to catch. The first half seemed not much more normal family news, with the exception of the trial of Foucquet. Her maturity and wider range of commentary make the second half better, but still difficult to penetrate for someone unfamiliar with detailed French history. I was hoping to understand why Proust has Marcel's grandmother so devoted to Madame Sevigne, wishing to follow her route on the way to Balbec, but it escapes me.

[Yann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Madame de Sévigné était la sœur de Bussy-Rabutin, l'amie de madame de Lafayette et de La Rochefoucault, et des milieux frondeurs. Cette correspondance contient principalement les échanges qu'elle eut avec sa fille, qu'elle aimait passionnément, mais dont elle fut séparée lorsque cette dernière partit en Provence suivre son mari, le compte de Grignan. On y trouve une foule de marques touchante d'affection inquiètes et tendres d'une mère pour sa fille, écrites avec autant de grâce que de naturel, et inspirant autant d'intérêt par le piquant des anecdotes que par le pittoresque du quotidien d'un milieu en pleine mutation

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have become a close acquaintance of Mme de S, who was so clever, so well-informed, so wry and so soft-hearted. She was a witness to history - being acquainted with life at the centre of power, Versailles. And better still, because she had the respect and even friendship of many of the most interesting men and women of her country and time.

For others who are interested in getting a closer acquaintance with her letters, French texts are online at https://fr.wikisource.org. I found the footnotes helpful.

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read because she was a major influence on Proust via his mother. But it is also a hilarious and inciteful read in its own right. A gossip in the court, Madame's obsession with her daughter is impressive. Sevigne jumps from the page like Cellini.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Les "Lettres choisies" de Madame de Sévigné plongent le lecteur d'une drôle de façon dans l'ambiance de la glorieuse époque de Louis XIV; c'est-à-dire elles ont été écrites par une personne exclue du cour du Roi Soleil et envoyées à d'autres personnes surtout sa fille qui étaient elles aussi en exile parce qu'elles étaient liées aux Frondeurs qui s'étaient opposés à l'idée d'une monarchie absolue et à la personne du Cardinal Mazarin le principal ministre d'état en France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV.
Les "Lettres choisies" sont un festin pour les amateurs de la culture française du dix-septième siècle. On trouve chez Mme de Sévigné le même style et la même vision du monde que ceux de sa grande amie Mme de la Fayette, l'auteure de "La princesse de Clèves". Sévigné raconte des anecdotes intéressants sur la Rochefoucauld qui était aussi très proche d'elle. Elle décrit des premières des pièces de théâtre de Racine et des opéras de Lully. Elle parle beaucoup de ses auteurs préférés (Tasse, Arioste, Virgile, et Corneille parmi d'autres.) On aime Mme de Sévigné pour son grand enthousiasme pour la littérature et les arts
On accepte généralement que les lettres de Mme de Sévigné ont donné un très grand souffle au roman épistolaire. Mme de Sévigné a démontré tout le potentiel de genre. Dans ses lettres elle présente des portraits très complexe d'elle-même et de sa fille. Encore on voit l'évolution des attitudes et des émotions des individus dans ses missives; présentées en séries elles deviennent un narratif.
Les lettres de Mme de Sévigné vont plaire très peu aux lecteurs qui ne connaissent pas les œuvres des grands écrivains de l'époque de Louis XIV. C'est à vous de décider si vous avez le bagage nécessaire pour profiter.

[Damien Travel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grignan’s castle, perched on top of the town and commanding the surrounding plain is one of Provence’s literary highlights. This is where the Marquise de Sévigné’s daughter, Madame de Grignan lived after being married with a Provencal gentleman. The letters from the mother to the daughter are one the most wonderful examples of the French epistolary art in the 17th century. The marquise paid some visits to her daughter but she dreaded the long journeys in the Rhone valley and preferred writing. Her correspondence remains a monument of tenderness and wit. This is an art that is disappearing since as Jean Cocteau wrote: « Would we know Madame de Sévigné’s name if she could have used a phone? ».

http://www.travelreadings.org/2017/12...

[Anise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading this book in French to help me master the language, so it is a challenge to get through the whole book, but it is a beautiful diary even with grammatical confusion.

[Kelly]

Madame de Sevigne was referenced as a big influence on the Lennox sisters in the book Aristocrats. From what they had to say about her and her letter writing style, I'm interested.

[Aria Ligi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book, but my one quibble is that the editors needed to include better notes. Some idioms were not familiar, and puns were as well. There were too many times when I would read a name, and the person was not listed in the list of personages either in the main one or the other for nicknames (and some monikers were hidden in the main listing of personages and not the one for sobriquets), with the result that reader becomes completely lost.

The letters are fascinating, and I enjoyed hearing about everything in the court of Louis XIV and Madame de Sévigné's life. Still, it felt as if I was missing over half the story due to the absence of what would be some truly enlightening notes.

One other aside, and this is to Wikipedia, which I will be writing to, they falsely state that her daughter had two children when she had five.

Marie Blanche (1670-1735) became a nun
Louis-Province (1671-1704)
Marquis de Grignan predeceased his father
Jean-Baptiste (1676-1677), Died in infancy
Pauline (1674-1737) married the Marquis de Simiane

[Milyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai lu une édition différente. C'est très intéressant de voir à quel point les lettres étaient importantes à cette époque. J'ai trouvé Mme de Sévigné bien obsédée avec sa fille. Mais bon, elle était aussi veuve à un jeune âge, et les lettres semblent être devenues le point focal de sa vie après cela. Ses lettres étaient à la fois, journal intime, miroir de la cour, conseils maternels et bien d'autres.

[Sarra Tebib · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was cool to read, I like her style

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

These letters feel so fresh. It’s a fantastic insight into this era. Women are key correspondents, novelists, they’re acting and reading and getting involved in politics and civic affairs.

You get a sense from these letters that the people in the 17th century weren’t so very different from today. At the same time, the sheer number of letters which carry the news of one or multiple people dying shows how different life was.

I read this after reading Nancy Mitford’s Sun King - I think it would be a struggle to understand these letters without at least reading a little bit about the history and politics of the time first.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a poorly annotated selection of some of the most endearing letters ever written. No, I didn't understand everything; some of the allusions are too obscure even for historians to decipher. But this is to be expected. These are personal letters, after all; and they're steeped in daily incidents and goings-on that sometimes have no other referent in printed materials. Most of the allusions, however, can be made out with some helpful footnotes (don't count on the Penguin edition for this...). The better acquainted one is with the cultural and political climate of 17th-century France, the better one will be able to appreciate Mme de Sévigné's charming epistles. I dote on the period's literature, personally, and count La Rochefoucauld and Madame de La Fayette among my favorite writers of all time--and that's saying nothing of the period's playwrights. (Mme de Sévigné was esp. keen on Corneille; Racine's good, too, she says, but he doesn't write "for the ages." She adores Corneille.)

Mme de Sévigné was a nervous & restless woman, constantly worrying about her daughter's health, forever urging her to stay indoors and rest, not to write too much if she thought it would exhaust her, & not to forget to take her medicine, for Heaven's sake! Mme de Grignan was her "unvarying taste" and "inexhaustible affection" (257). The bulk of Sévigné's most celebrated letters are addressed to her daughter, who moved to Provence after marrying the Comte de Grignan at the age of--was it 23? They had originally planned to live in Paris, but the comte was appointed to the position of Lieutenant-Governor, so that Sévigné was obliged to follow him there. This separation between mother and daughter (something morbidly & relentlessly dwelled on by Sévigné) inspired so many of Sévigné's most cherished letters. But again, the infatuation with her daughter was morbid, obsessive, and unnaturally intense. Mme de Sévigné lived for her daughter. She was the epitome of the over-fond mother, perpetually boasting of her daughter's accomplishments and relaying the general praise back to her little girl: Guess what? I saw so-and-so at Versailles the other day. She said you were the best dancer she's ever seen, can you believe it? Take care, dear. You know no one loves you more than I do.

The letters are filled with girlish chit-chat and court gossip; Sévigné can be fabulously coy at times in restraining information and building suspense. She loves to shock her readers. Then there are all the weddings and funerals, the scandals--all the news she lavishes on her daughter to "amuse" and "delight" her, to keep her informed. The letters are remarkably comic at times. But Sévigné's equally prone to melancholy, and like an old relative who calls every time someone dies, ready with all the lurid details, she's forever ready with her epistolary memento mori--and before you know it, she's got a paralyzing bout of death anxiety.

The letters are gloriously disjointed and disorganized, brimming with trivia and important matters alike. They are extraordinary for their rawness and candor, for Sévigné's willingness to expose herself and be vulnerable on the page. (These are not narcissistic exercises in belletristic letter-writing, but heartfelt messages to whom I should really refer to as "the love of her life"--stifling and invasive messages, perhaps, but well-intentioned and startlingly incisive at times). It's what makes her letters so human. Yes, Sévigné was an anxious and hypersensitive woman, but she was also a woman of tremendous brilliance and generosity and love. I look forward to reading these again in a more authoritative edition--especially after updating my historical knowledge of the period...

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading letters and I favor people of the past; I was looking forward reading Sevigne's after reading Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, I wanted to see what his grandmother loved so much about Madame de Sevigne and her daughter's relationship. I had read on Wikipedia that her cousin felt the mother's armor was lots stronger than the cooler daughter. Though I enjoyed these letters, I was really disappointed that her whole collection is not available for English readers on Kindle. I feel I missed out a lot and it made less sense than my other letter reads that have all available. I enjoyed the comments about Madame de Brinvilliers and the trail plus seeing the accused carted away. Though limted, I am glad I read these and see how much she loved her daughter.


"Mme de Brinvilliers is not as happy as I am, she is in prison. She is managing pretty well. Yesterday she asked if she could play piquet because she was bored. Her confession has been found. She tells us that at seven she was no longer a virgin, that she went on in the same way, that she had poisoned her father, her brothers, one of her own children and herself, but this was only in order to try out an antidote. Medea had not done as much. She admitted that this confession was in her own hand (a very silly thing to do), but says she was in a high fever when she wrote it, that it was an act of lunacy, an extravagance that could not be taken seriously."

[Rozonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sévigné, comme Proust le fera à son tour un jour, fait de l'art avec sa quotidianité; les lettres à sa fille, pleines de charm et d'esprit, deviennent un miroir magnifique de la vie dans la cour de Louis XIV.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read at Bennington 1969 for Monsieur guy's class...very thoughtful and lively letters to her beloved daughter

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un grand classique que j'aime beaucoup, des lettres pleines de charme et d'esprit.

[blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

not gonna lie she got me with the story of louis and his poem

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art of letter writing has waned in my lifetime. In my youth I remember writing to friends who had moved away. I wanted to know about far off places, how my friends were doing in those far off places, and perhaps even hear some news, even gossip. It was never anything deep. All of that has changed.

Let’s jump back three hundred years or so. How about 1644, Paris? Imagine a woman, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal who married Henri de Sévigné, who was three years older than Marie. He was a marquis and in doing so, she became a marquise. They moved to Les Roches, his small estate in Bretagne, northwestern France. They had two children, a daughter Françoise-Marguerite (1646) and a son Charles (1648).

Life changed when Henri was killed in a duel with Chevalier d’Albret in 1651. It was over a woman. Marie was 24. She never married again and raised her children as a widow. There was one thing Marie could do — present her daughter to the court to find a husband. She was 16. She charmed the court with her ballet skills and beauty. Mother and daughter were invited to Versailles. It worked. In 1669, when Françoise-Marguerite was 23, she was married a man 14-years her senior. François de Grignan was 37 and twice married. He was given the title of lieutenant general of Provence. They moved off to a far flung corner of south eastern France, Aix. Hélas!

Distance makes the heart grow fonder. Marie or Madame de Sévigné began to write letters to her daughter, now Madame de Grignan for almost twenty-five years. Lucky for us, we get a snapshot of family, political, social, literary, and cultural life of this period when Louis XIV ruled France. Louis was known as the Sun King and France was in a “golden age.”.

In Paris, Mme de Sévigné became involved with a literary circle which included two who would become life-long friends. First was La Rochefoucauld famous for his “Maxims” (1664); the other was Madame de La Fayette, famous for her book, “La Princesse de Clèves” (1678). They became well versed in the books, plays and operas of the time. Talk about books. How about El Cid by Corneille (1636), Meditations by Rene Descartes (1641), Tartuffe by Molière (1664), Fables by La Fontaine (1668), and the opera Atys by Quinault and Lully (1676)? She even attended the premiere of Esther by Racine in 1689. She lived in a cultured time.

She was a noblewoman and certainly had her privileges. However these were also turbulent times. Religious issues came up even within the family. Although fiercely Catholic, Sévigné read a variety of religious texts and seemed to have a good knowledge of the issues roiling around at the time. There were always wars that drew upon the men to fight. Her son Charles served but as a military man, he had to pay for his commission and he drew up large debts. Keeping her estates during this time took its toll and near the end, the money was running out.

To top this off she had medical issues through much of her later life. At one point rheumatism affected her so that she couldn’t write and her son took over for awhile (she did regain her use of her hand). Not to mention that finding a good doctor was a game of chance and those medical treatments were not something to shout about. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not at all. She lost a lot of friends. She did manage to live to 70, outliving Mme de La Fayette who died at age 59. Even her own daughter Françoise-Marguerite died at age 58, only nine years later after Sévigné’s death. Life was rather short back then.

Of course the vast majority of these letters were addressed to her daughter. Her love for her was solid. They had a very close relationship. Over the years she visited Provence as well as her daughter and other family members visited her in Paris. Her residence was the beautiful Hotel Carnavalet, now a historic museum. She did live a good life.

https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/musee...

Many times she wrote about her travels, including a very memorable time on a boat going down the Loire River. “Nous ne sommes que l’Abbé et moi dans ce joli cabinet, sur de bons coussins, bien à l’air, bien à notre aise; tout le rest comme des cochons sur le paille.” (It’s just the Abbot and I in this pretty office, on good cushions, good air, very comfortable; everything else like pigs on the straw, p. 330). Perhaps not quite an early river cruise? Even her visits to Brittany seemed memorable.

Sévigné had a great sense of humour, could hurl out some nasty zingers, easily quoted well known sayings, debated on the literary aspects of the ancient epics, and yet always seem to have something to say about everything. She knew her place and yet revealed an inner fire.

These letters were first published in 1725, some thirty years after her death. Now she is considered part of this great French literary period. They are definitely worth reading if one wants to get a glimpse of her and her time.

[claire ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It cannot be denied that Madame de Sévigné has a gift for words and transmitting emotions through her writing. Her letters feel alive and intimate as if they're meant for you. It truly feels like she's sitting across from you, drinking tea and whispering to you about what Madame de ~whatever~ did the other day.

I will admit some letters were boring or just about subjects I did not care about (though this might be more the fault of the editor), the rest, however? Fantastic. My personal favourites were the ones gossiping about the ladies at court, which were pure comedy, and also the ones describing the war and all the fear yet glory that comes with it. The ones she sent with her son to her daughter were wonderful, the family bond they have is heartwarming and you just want to be part of it.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely. So personal. It’s hard to believe these letters were written so long ago by this French aristocrat. Personal views are seen of so many people in history who seemed so far removed in history books.

[Hannah Conner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating letters from a courtier of King Louis XIV. Many of the people and events were unfamiliar to me, but the letters were still enjoyable and gave an interesting look into the time.

[Louise Houde]

Nul.

[Sveta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty, insightful, brilliant woman.

[Nalorya (Conor's version) · Rating 1 out of 5]

COmment je note ça ?
Tuez-moi
je prendrais pas ça pour l'oral hein

[Peter Ragnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

random; good but i was lowkey confused who was who

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never stop reading Madam’s letters. She brings me constant joy, worry and entertainment I’ve even read her letters standing in her bedroom at Grignan. I consider her a close friend.