Madeleine de Scudéry
Encyclopedia
Madeleine de Scudéry often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry, was a French
writer
. She was the younger sister of author Georges de Scudéry
.
, Normandy
, in northern France
, she is said to have been very plain as well as 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
. In addition, on her own, Madeleine studied agriculture
, medicine
, cooking, Spanish, and Italian. Her works also demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of ancient history
that it is suspected she had received instruction in Greek and Latin. In 1637, following the death of her uncle, Scudéry established herself at Paris
with her brother. Georges de Scudéry became a playwright. Madeleine often used her brother's name to publish her works. She was at once admitted to the Hôtel de Rambouillet
coterie, and afterwards established a salon
of her own under the title of the Société du samedi (Saturday Society). For the last half of the 17th century, under the pseudonym of Sapho or her own name, she was acknowledged as the first bluestocking
of France and of the world. She formed a close friendship with Paul Pellisson
which was only ended by his death in 1693. She never married.
. Artamène, which contains about 2.1 million words, ranks as one of the longest novels ever written. These stories 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, Roman warriors and maidens.
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 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
, Quintilian
, Aristotle
, and the sophists to a theory of salon conversation and letter writing. Scudéry's Conversations Sur Divers Sujets, included dialogues 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
, 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. She could moralize—a favourite employment of the time—with sense and propriety.
Controversial in her own era, Mademoiselle de Scudéry was satirized by Molière
in his plays Les Précieuses ridicules
(1659) and Les Femmes savantes
(1672) and by Antoine Furetière
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.
Her Life and Correspondence was published at Paris by MM. Rathery and Boutron in 1873.
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
, 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
" conversation and letter writing.
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).
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. She was the younger sister of author Georges de Scudéry
Georges de Scudéry
Georges de Scudéry , the elder brother of Madeleine de Scudéry, was a French novelist, dramatist and poet.Georges de Scudéry was born in Le Havre, in Normandy, whither his father had moved from Provence...
.
Biography
Born at Le HavreLe Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
, Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, in northern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, she is said to have been very plain as well as without fortune, but she was exceedingly well-educated. Her father, captain of the port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
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
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, dancing, painting, and needlework
Needlework
Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...
. In addition, on her own, Madeleine studied agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, cooking, Spanish, and Italian. Her works also demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of ancient history
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
that it is suspected she had received instruction in Greek and Latin. In 1637, following the death of her uncle, Scudéry established herself at Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with her brother. Georges de Scudéry became a playwright. Madeleine often used her brother's name to publish her works. She was at once admitted to the Hôtel de Rambouillet
Hôtel de Rambouillet
The Hôtel de Rambouillet was the Paris residence of Madame de Rambouillet, who ran a renowned literary salon there from about 1607 until her death in 1665...
coterie, and afterwards established a salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
of her own under the title of the Société du samedi (Saturday Society). For the last half of the 17th century, under the pseudonym of Sapho or her own name, she was acknowledged as the first bluestocking
Bluestocking
A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman. Until the late 18th century, the term had referred to learned people of both sexes. However it subsequently was applied primarily to intellectual women, and the French equivalent bas bleu had a similar connotation. The term later developed...
of France and of the world. She formed a close friendship with Paul Pellisson
Paul Pellisson
thumb|Paul Pellisson,Paul Pellisson was a French author.He was born in Béziers, of a distinguished Calvinist family. He studied law at Toulouse, and practised at the bar of Castres. Going to Paris with letters of introduction to Valentin Conrart, a fellow Calvinist, he was introduced to the...
which was only ended by his death in 1693. She never married.
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., 1661-3) were the delight of Europe, commended by other literary figures such as Madame de SévignéMarie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, 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.-Life:...
. Artamène, which contains about 2.1 million words, ranks as one of the longest novels ever written. These stories 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, Roman warriors and maidens.
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 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
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, Quintilian
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing...
, Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, and the sophists to a theory of salon conversation and letter writing. Scudéry's Conversations Sur Divers Sujets, included dialogues 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
Invention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
, 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
Roman à clef
Roman à clef or roman à clé , French for "novel with a key", is a phrase used to describe a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction...
with Mademoiselle de Scudéry's contemporaries. In Clélie, Herminius represents Paul Pellisson; Scaurus and Lyriane were Paul Scarron
Paul Scarron
Paul Scarron was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist. His precise birthdate is unknown, but he was baptized on July 4, 1610...
and his wife (who became Mme de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon was the second wife of King Louis XIV of France. She was known during her first marriage as Madame Scarron, and subsequently as Madame 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
Arcadia
Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
where the geography is all based around the theme of love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
: the river of Inclination flows past the villages of "Billet Doux" (Love Letter
Love letter
A love letter is a romantic way to express feelings of love in written form. Delivered by hand, by mail or romantically left in a secret location, the letter may be anything from a short and simple message of love to a lengthy explanation of feelings...
), "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. She could moralize—a favourite employment of the time—with sense and propriety.
Controversial in her own era, Mademoiselle de Scudéry was satirized by Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
in his plays Les Précieuses ridicules
Les Précieuses ridicules
Les Précieuses ridicules is a one-act satire by Molière in prose. It takes aim at the précieuses, the ultra-witty ladies who indulged in lively conversations, word games and, in a word, préciosité ....
(1659) and Les Femmes savantes
Les Femmes Savantes
Les Femmes savantes is a play by Molière in five acts, written in verse. A satire on academic pretention, female education, and préciosité , it was one of his most popular comedies...
(1672) and by Antoine Furetière
Antoine Furetière
Antoine Furetière , French scholar and writer, was born in Paris.-Biography:He studied law and practised for a time as an advocate, but eventually took orders and after various promotions became abbé of Chalivoy in the diocese of Bourges in 1662...
in his Roman Bourgeois (1666).
The 19th century German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann , better known by his pen name E.T.A. Hoffmann , was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist...
wrote what is usually referred to as the first German-language detective story
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
, 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.
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 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
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
, 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 (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
" conversation and letter writing.
Literature
- Sainte-BeuveCharles Augustin Sainte-BeuveCharles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a literary critic and one of the major figures of French literary history.-Early years:...
, Causeries du lundi, volume IV (Paris, 1857–62) - Rathery and Boutron, Mademoiselle de Scudéry: Sa vie et sa correspondance (Paris, 1873)
- Victor CousinVictor CousinVictor Cousin was a French philosopher. He was a proponent of Scottish Common Sense Realism and had an important influence on French educational policy.-Early life:...
, La société française au 17ème siècle (sixth edition, two volumes, Paris, 1886) - André Le Breton, Le roman au XVIIème 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
Heinrich Körting
Heinrich Körting was a German philologist, a brother of Gustav Körting. Like his brother, he was a Romance scholar. He was born in Leipzig, became privatdozent in 1885, and in 1889 professor at the University of Leipzig...
, Geschichte des französischen Romans im 17ten Jahrhundert (second edition, Oppeln, 1891).