ellauri118.html on line 824: La Princesse de Clèves témoigne également du rôle important joué par les femmes en littérature et dans la vie culturelle du XVIIe siècle, marquée par le courant de la préciosité. Madame de La Fayette avait fréquenté avant son mariage le salon de la marquise de Rambouillet et, comme son amie Madame de Sévigné, faisait partie du cercle littéraire de Madeleine de Scudéry, dont elle admirait les œuvres.
ellauri118.html on line 838: This union was an important event in the life of Mme. de La Fayette, for it marks the beginning of her residence at Paris, and of her friendship with Mme. de Sévigné, who was a kinswoman of the Chevalier.
ellauri118.html on line 840: How close and lasting was this friendship is seen on almost every page of Mme. de Sévigné's correspondence. Indeed, so often does the name of Mme. de La Fayette occur in Mme. de Sévigné's letters to her daughter, that the latter may well have been jealous of her mother's friend. The companionship of Mme. de Sévigné was, after the death of La Rochefoucauld, the chief comfort of Mme. de La Fayette in her ill-health and seclusion; and it was from the sick-chamber of her friend that Mme. de Sévigné's letters would seem to have been written in those latter years. In 1693, soon after the death of Mme. de La Fayette, Mme. de Sévigné writes as follows of her dead friend: "Je me trouvois trop heureuse d'être aimée d'elle depuis un temps très-considérable; jamais nous n'avions eu le moindre nuage dans notre amitié.
ellauri118.html on line 844: The relation was equally sincere on the part of Mme. de La Fayette, though she was by nature more self-contained and reserved. But this reserve gives way to the strength of her feelings when in 1691, tormented by ill-health and knowing that her end is not far off, she writes to Mme. de Sévigné: "Croyez, ma très-chère, que vous êtes la personne du monde que j'ai le plus véritablement aimée."
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