Madame de Longueville: La Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville

A detailed study reconstructs the youth and social world of a prominent seventeenth-century noblewoman through unpublished letters and archival documents. It describes her early religious retreat, daily life at court and in celebrated salons, friendships, admirers, and the familial and political forces that shaped her choices. The book examines her relationship with a famous brother, the education and loves that formed his character, and a touching youthful attachment recovered from correspondence. Framed as part of a larger effort to recover overlooked women’s epistolary culture, it situates these personal portraits amid shifting seventeenth-century social and intellectual currents.