author
Marie-Angélique Du Gué Bagnoles Coulanges
1641–1723
A sharp-witted French letter writer from the circle of Madame de Sévigné, she is remembered for the lively spirit and social sparkle of her correspondence. Her surviving letters offer a glimpse of conversation, manners, and literary life in seventeenth-century France.
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 around 1641 as Marie-Angélique du Gué de Bagnols and later known as Madame de Coulanges, she was a French epistolary writer celebrated for her wit and presence in elite literary society. She died in Paris on August 3, 1723.
She is especially associated with the world of salon culture and with Madame de Sévigné, to whom she was closely connected. Rather than being known for long formal works, she is remembered for letters that capture the tone of cultivated conversation and the social life of her time.
Her reputation has lasted mainly through published collections of correspondence, where her voice appears lively, observant, and elegantly playful. For listeners interested in memoirs, letters, and the human side of literary history, her work opens a small but vivid window onto France under Louis XIV.