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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Madame de La Fayette (1634–1693)
La Fayette, Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de (lä-fī-ef or laf-ā-et’). A distinguished French novelist; born at Paris, 1634; died there, May 25, 1693. All her life she was in the foremost literary circles, after marriage her house being a noted rendezvous of wits and scholars, including Mme. de Sévigné, La Fontaine, and La Rochefoucauld. Her first novel was ‘The Princess de Montpensier’ (1660); ten years later appeared her second, ‘Zaïde,’ which among her works ranks next after ‘The Princess of Clèves’ (4 vols., 1678), her most celebrated work, and one of the classics of French literature. She wrote also a ‘History of Henrietta of England’ (1720), and ‘Memoirs of the Court of France for the Years 1688 and 1689’ (1731). (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).