Marie-Catherine de Villedieu, Les Aventures ou mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière [Memoirs of the Life of Henriette-Sylvie de Molière]

Polly Mangerson (DePaul University)

Ed. by Allison Stedman, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.03: French Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century: Classical and Baroque, 1600-1700.
Vol. editors: Heather Kirk (University of Western Ontario), Kathrina LaPorta (New York University), Polly Mangerson (DePaul University), Julia Prest (University of St Andrews), Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1672 - 1672

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Les Mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière

is a French novel published between 1672 and 1674 by Madame de Villedieu (born Marie-Catherine Desjardins, 1640-83). This unique work of fiction represents a hybridity of literary genres, being part autobiography, part picaresque novel and part epistolary novel. As such, Villedieu’s

Mémoires

are indicative of the evolution of both the novel and of women’s writing in seventeenth-century France.

When the first part of the Mémoires was published in 1672, Madame de Villedieu was well established as a professional writer specialized in theater, poetry, and fiction. She had already adopted the family name of her deceased lover, Antoine de Boësset, sieur de Villedieu, who had refused to marry her, but she had yet to obtain the royal

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2857 words

Citation: Mangerson, Polly. "Les Aventures ou mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35714, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Marie-Catherine de Villedieu, Les Aventures ou mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière [Memoirs of the Life of Henriette-Sylvie de Molière]

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