author
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.
1 Audiobook
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
by marquise de Marie Gigault de Bellefonds Villars, C. E. (Charlotte Elisabeth) Aïssé, Marie-Angélique Du Gué Bagnoles Coulanges, Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette, Ninon de Lenclos
About the author
Born in Circassia around 1693 or 1694, Charlotte Elisabeth Aïssé was taken from her homeland as a child and brought into the Ottoman world before being purchased by the French diplomat Count Charles de Ferriol. She was brought to France, baptized, and raised in elite society, eventually becoming known in Parisian high circles as Mademoiselle Aïssé.
She is best known for her letters, especially those written to Madame Calandrini. These letters, published after her death, earned lasting attention for their clarity, warmth, and sharp sense of character. Readers have valued them not only as elegant prose, but also as glimpses into private feeling and social life in early 18th-century France.
Aïssé died in Paris on March 13, 1733. Though she left no large body of formal literary work, her correspondence secured her place in French literary history, and her remarkable life has continued to fascinate biographers, historians, and readers of memoir and letters.