Lettres de Mmes. de Villars, de Coulanges et de La Fayette, de Ninon de L'Enclos et de Mademoiselle Aïssé accompagnées de notices bibliographiques, de notes explicatives par Louis-Simon Auger

C. E. (Charlotte Elisabeth) Aïssé

d. 1733

Remembered for a vivid collection of letters, this early 18th-century French writer turned personal correspondence into something intimate, observant, and enduring. Her life moved from enslavement in childhood to the salons of Paris, giving her story an unusual emotional depth.

Marie-Angélique Du Gué Bagnoles Coulanges

1641–1723

A sharp-eyed French letter writer of the Grand Siècle, she moved through the same brilliant circles as Madame de Sévigné and made a name for her wit. Her surviving letters offer a lively glimpse of courtly society, friendship, and conversation in seventeenth-century France.

Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette

1634–1693

Best known for La Princesse de Clèves, she helped shape the modern novel with clear, elegant storytelling and unusually sharp insight into love, duty, and inner conflict. Writing in 17th-century France, she turned courtly life into fiction that still feels psychologically alive.

Ninon de Lenclos

1620–1705

A brilliant and unconventional figure in 17th-century Paris, she became famous for her wit, independence, and lively salon. Her life has fascinated readers for centuries because it sits at the crossroads of literature, philosophy, and social history.