Lectures de Madame de Lafayette. Par Jean Rohou et Gilles Siouffi.

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 597.2-597
Author(s):  
John D. Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Madame De Lafayette

Madame de Lafayette, ou l'intelligence du cœur

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-226
Author(s):  
Maurice Laugaa
Keyword(s):  
Madame De Lafayette

Madame de Lafayette

MLN ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 852
Author(s):  
William O. Goode ◽  
Stirling Haig
Keyword(s):  
Madame De Lafayette

Madame de Lafayette and 'La Princesse de Cleves'

1973 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 365
Author(s):  
Charles G. S. Williams ◽  
Janet Raitt
Keyword(s):  
Madame De Lafayette

scholarly journals L’échec du mentorat dans Les malheurs de l’amour (1747) de Madame de Tencin et dans Les Lettres du marquis de Roselle (1764) de Madame Élie de Beaumont

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Sante Arcangelo Viselli
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Madame De Lafayette

The novel of the Enlightenment is rich in topoi evoking mentors: Madame de Tencin, in Les Malheurs de l’amour (1747) and Madame Élie de Beaumont in Lettres du marquis de Roselle (1764) are particularly keen to stage this character who has been evolving since Fenelon in quite a dramatic manner: in the texts studied, the mentor, a wise advisor, often a woman, alludes to a message that goes well beyond its ancient symbolism. However, this intellectual guide becomes the disillusioned spokesperson and, at the same time, the victim of the Enlightenment. S/he guides the mentee through the dark forest of deceptive passions, such as the obvious example of love, but also those passions born, above all, of the contradictory game of interests between social classes, the behaviour of a bourgeoisie desperate to be recognized, and the impoverished, decadent and libertine aristocracy. The 18th Century witnesses a transformation of the mentor as s/he was classically portrayed. The latter keeps on fulfilling his/her original role as an advisor, but also becomes a narratological model – particularly in Madame de Tencin’s fictions, for whom Madame de Lafayette, for example, remains the intellectual model to imitate. Moreover, the mentor becomes, during the Enlightenment, a being in the flesh, sensual, passionate, whose ethic is merely anthropological, who surveys and examines the laws through reason. The Age of the “libertine” is also the era of a reconsidered mentorship: a calculating character, the libertine-mentor is often tinged with existential evil, a resurgence of a double-edged “ego” which characterizes human beings, a philosophy inaugurated by Montaigne and echoed by Descartes and Pascal, among others. Evil lingers during the entire Enlightenment despite the optimism conveyed by reason. Although this analysis will focus on the two aforementioned novels, it would also be stimulating to further the study of this topos, by including several other novels which would expand and enrich the SATOR database.

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