Françoise de Graffigny
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| Françoise d'Issembourg d'Happoncourt, Madame de Graffigny | |
|---|---|
 Madame de Graffigny |
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| Born | February 11, 1695 Nancy, Duchy of Lorraine |
| Died | December 12, 1758 (aged 63) Paris, France |
| Title | Madame de Graffigny |
Françoise de Graffigny (11 February 1695 – 12 December 1758), born Françoise d’Issembourg du Buisson d’Happoncourt, was a French writer. She was born in Nancy and died in Paris.
She married a chamberlain in the household of the duke of Lorraine. However, her husband was a violent man, a drinker and a gambler. In eleven years of marriage they had three children, none of whom survived childhood. She succeeded in obtaining a legal separation from him as several witnesses had seen or heard him beating her. She left him and went to Paris in 1743 with a certain Mademoiselle de Guise. There she befriended Voltaire, with whom she stayed for a time at the Château de Cirey and to whom she dedicated her writings.
She became famous with her Lettres d'une Péruvienne (1747) and Cénie (1750), about the condition of women. She is also the author of several journals and a 14-volume collection of correspondence. These letters written over a period of 25 years offer a vision of her friends and the period in which she lived.
She wrote a drama, La Fille d'Aristide, and composed short works for children, including La Fièvre d'Azor.
In 1820, 29 of her private letters were published under the title The private life of Voltaire and Madame du Châtelet.
Although popular during her lifetime, she was largely forgotten after the French Revolution, and it was not until the advent of the Feminist movement in the 1960s that the writer's works were once more appreciated. This led to several republications of her novels about this time.
[edit] Works
- Lettres d'une Péruvienne
- Cénie : pièce nouvelle en cinq actes
- Correspondance de Madame de Graffigny
- Le fils légitime drame en trois actes et en prose
- Culotte rouge, ou, Le vainqueur du Kraken : drame-féerie en quatre actes et six tableaux,
[edit] External links
- Her dramatic works in French from the website CÉSAR
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