LA FAYETTE, MARIE-MADELEINE PIOCHE DE LA VERGNE, COMTESSE DE (1634-1692), French novelist, was baptized in Paris, on March 18, 1634. Her father, Marc Pioche de la Vergne, commandant of Havre, died when she was 16, and her mother seems to have been more occupied with her own than her daughter's interests. Mme. de la Vergne married in 1651 the chevalier de Sevigne, and Marie thus became con nected with Mme. de Sevigne, who was destined to be a lifelong friend. She studied Greek, Latin and Italian, and inspired in one of her tutors, Gilles de Ménage, an enthusiastic admiration which he expressed in verse in three or four languages. Marie married in 1655 Francois Motier, comte de La Fayette. They lived on the count's estates in Auvergne, according to her own account (in a letter to Ménage) quite happily; but after the birth of her two sons her husband disappeared so effectually that it was long supposed that he died about 166o, though he really lived until 1683. Mme. de La Fayette had returned to Paris, and about 1665 contracted an intimacy with the duc de la Rochefoucauld, then engaged on his Maximes. The constancy and affection that marked this liaison on both sides was its justification, and when in 1680 La Rochefoucauld died Mme. de La Fayette received the sincerest sympathy. Her first novel, La Princesse de Montpensier, was published anonymously in 1662 ; Zayde appeared in 1670 under the name of J. R. de Segrais; and in 1678 her masterpiece, La Princesse de Cleves, also under the name of Segrais. The history of the modern novel of sentiment begins with the Prin cesse de Cleves. The interminable pages of Mlle. de Scudery
with the Precieuses and their admirers masquerading as Persians or ancient Romans had already been discredited by the burlesques of Paul Scarron and Antoine Furetiere. Mme. de La Fayette's story offered in its shortness and simplicity a complete contrast to the extravagant and lengthy romances of the time. Its interest depends not on incident but on the characters of the personages. They act in a perfectly reasonable way and their motives are analyzed with the finest discrimination. In answer to these criti cisms, which her anonymity prevented her from answering directly, Mme. de La Fayette wrote her last novel, Comtesse de Tende.
The character of her work and her history have combined to give an impression of melancholy and sweetness that only •repre sents one side of her character, for a correspondence brought to light in modern times showed her as the acute diplomatic agent of Jeanne de Nemours, duchess of Savoy, at the court of Louis XIV. She had from her early days also been intimate with Henri etta of England, duchess of Orleans, under whose immediate direction she wrote her Histoire de Madame Henrietta d'Angle terra, which only appeared in 1720. She died on May 25, 1692.
See C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Portraits de femmes (1881) ; 0. d'Hausson ville, Madame de La Fayette (1891), in the series of Grands ecrivains francais; and a critical edition of the historical memoirs by Eugene Asse (189o). See also L. Rea, Marie Madeleine, comtesse de La Fayette (1908) ; H. Ashton, Madame de la Fayette, sa vie et ses oeuvres (1922) .