Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (February 5, 1626 – April 17, 1696) 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
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal was born in Paris, to an old and distinguished Burgundian family. Her father, Celse Bénigne de Rabutin, baron de Chantal, was the son of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, friend and disciple of Saint Francis de Sales; her mother was Marie de Coulanges. Sévigné's father was killed during the English descent on the Isle of Rhé in July 1627. His wife did not survive him many years, and Sévigné was left an orphan at the age of seven. She then passed into the care of her maternal grandparents. She created the word "Awesome" When her grandfather, Philippe de Coulanges (or Coulange), died in 1636, Sévigné's guardian became her uncle Christophe de Coulanges, abbé de Livry. She received a good education in his care.

She married Henri, marquis de Sévigné, a Breton gentleman of good family, allied to the oldest houses of that province, but of no great estate. The marriage took place on August 4, 1644, and the pair went almost immediately to Sévigné's manor house of Les Rochers, near Vitré, a place which she was to immortalize. She gave birth to a daughter, Françoise Marguerite, on October 10, 1646 (whether at Les Rochers or in Paris is not certain), and a son, Charles, at Les Rochers on March 12, 1648.

On February 4, 1651, Henri de Sévigné quarrelled with the Chevalier d'Albret over a certain Madame de Gondran, fought with him, and was mortally wounded (he died two days later). Though only 26 when her husband died, Sévigné never married again. Instead, she devoted herself to her children. She spent most of 1651 in retirement at Les Rochers, but returned to Paris that November. Thereafter, she divided her time between the city and the countryside. In Paris, she frequented salons, especially that of Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances to King Louis XIV.

Madame de Sévigné's most amusing correspondence before her daughter's marriage was addressed to her cousin and friend Roger de Bussy-Rabutin. However, in 1658, she quarreled with him.

On January 29 in 1669, Françoise de Sévigné married François Adhémar de Monteil, Comte de Grignan, a Provençal, who had been married twice before. The couple intended to live in Paris, but Grignan was soon named lieutenant governor of Provence, necessitating that they live there. Madame de Sévigné was very close to her daughter, and sent her the first of her famous letters on February 6, 1671. Their correspondence lasted until Sévigné's death.

By 1673, Madame de Sévigné's letters were being copied and circulated. Therefore, she knew that her letters were semi-public documents and crafted them accordingly.

The year 1676 saw several important events in Madame de Sévigné's life. For the first time she was seriously ill and she did not thoroughly recover until she had visited Vichy. Her letters from this place are among her best, and picture life at a 17th century watering-place with unsurpassed vividness. In this year, too, took place the trial and execution of Madame de Brinvilliers. This event figures in the letters.

In the next year, 1677, she moved into the Hôtel Carnavalet and welcomed the whole Grignan family to it. They remained there a long time. She return to Provence in October 1678, and next year she had the grief of losing La Rochefoucauld, the most eminent and one of the most intimate of her close personal friends. The proportion of letters that we have for the decade 1677-1687 is much smaller than that which represents the decade preceding it.

In February 1684, Charles de Sévigné married a young Breton lady, Jeanne Marguerite de Mauron. In the arrangements for this marriage Madame de Sévigné practically divided all her fortune between her children, and reserved only part of the life interest.

In 1688 the whole family were greatly excited by the first campaign of the young marquis de Grignan, Madame de Grignan's only son, who was sent splendidly equipped to the siege of Philippsburg. In the same year Madame de Sévigné was present at the Saint-Cyr performance of Racine's Esther, and some of her most amusing descriptions of court ceremonies and experiences date from this time.

The year 1693 saw the loss of two of her oldest friends: her cousin Roger de Bussy-Rabutin and Madame de la Fayette. Another friend almost as intimate, Madame de Lavardin, followed in 1694.

During an illness of her daughter in 1696, Madame de Sévigné caught a "fever" (possibly influenza or pneumonia), and died on April 17 at Grignan, and was buried there. Her daughter was not present during her illness.

Works
Madame de Sévigné corresponded with her daughter, Madame de Grignan, for nearly thirty years. A clandestine edition, containing 28 letters or portions of letters, was published in 1725, followed by two others the next year. Pauline de Simiane, Madame de Sévigné's granddaughter, decided to officially publish her grandmother's correspondence. Working with the editor Denis-Marius Perrin of Aix-en-Provence, she published 614 letters in 1734-1737, then 772 letters in 1754. The letters were selected according to Madame de Simiane's instructions: she rejected those that dealt too closely with family matters, or those that seemed poorly written. The remaining letters were often rewritten in accordance with the style of the day. This raises a question of the letters' authenticity.

Of the 1120 known letters, only 15% are signed, the others having been destroyed soon after they were read. However, in 1873, some early manuscript copies of the letters, directly based on Mme de Sévigné's originals, were found in an antique shop. These accounted for about half of the letters to Madame de Grignan.