Madame de La Fayette

Appointed maid of honour to Queen Anne of Austria, Marie-Madeleine entered the highest aristocratic circles, forming intimate, lifelong literary friendships with Madame de Sévigné and François de La Rochefoucauld, host of Paris' most celebrated salon.

Published anonymously in 1678, La Princesse de Clèves broke completely with voluminous adventure romances. Set in the sixteenth-century court of Henry II, its intense focus on internal psychological struggle, marital fidelity, and the famous confession scene established realistic narrative introspection in French letters.