Marie Madeleine La Fayette

Marie Madeleine La Fayette (1634-1693), French novelist, whose book La princesse de Clèves (The Princess of Clèves, 1678) is generally regarded as one of the most influential French novels. Born in Paris, La Fayette studied Greek, Latin, and Italian in her youth. In 1655 she married François Motier, comte de La Fayette. She lived with him on his estates in Auvergny until he deserted her about 1660. She then took up life in Paris, and from about 1665 she maintained an intimate friendship with noted writer François de La Rochefoucauld.

La Fayette's masterpiece is La princesse de Clèves, the story of a married noblewoman who falls in love with another man. She chooses to keep her love a secret, however, and even after her husband dies (having discovered the secret), she does not remarry. The novel is most notable for the level of psychological complexity it reveals in the mind of its characters. This realism in character portrayal sets the book apart from other books of the time. By focusing intensely on emotions and thoughts rather than on physical actions, La Fayette also departed from traditional adventure-oriented prose. Another notable aspect of La princess de Clèves is the strict sense of historical detail with which La Fayette re-created 16th-century France. She demonstrated this attention to detail in other historical novels as well, including La princesse de Montpensier (The Princess of Montpensier, 1662) and Zayde (1670).She also wrote the biography Histoire de Madame Henriette d'Angleterre (Henrietta of England, published posthumously, 1720).