Marie de Gournay

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Marie de Gournay (1565 - 1645) was an admirer of Michel de Montaigne, who having read his works during her teens, went to meet him and eventually became his "adopted daughter". She receives her name from the castle of Gournay-sur-Aronde (in the Ile-de-France Province) that her father, Guillaume Le Jars, bought before dying in 1578.

After Montaigne's death, de Gournay edited the third edition of the Essays in 1585 and it is for this that she is best known. She was, however, also a writer in her own right, composing a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including two feminist tracts, The Equality of Men and Women (1622) and The Ladies' Grievance (Les femmes et Grief des dames, 1626). Gournay was also concerned with the human rights of women. In her novel titled Le Promenoir de M. de Montaigne qui traite de l’amour dans l’œuvre de Plutarque. she explored the dangers women face when they become dependent on men. She insisted that women should be educated.*

Contents 1 Life 2 Quotes 3 Works 4 References 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Life

Marie de Gournay met Montaigne in Paris in 1588, aged 23 against 55 for Montaigne. He later visited her at the castle of Gournay. Montaigne called Marie her "fille d'alliance" (Essays, chap. XVII, II). After her mother's death in 1591, Marie moved to Paris, leaving the castle to her brother Charles, who was forced to sell it in 1608. Montaigne died the following year, and her widow, Françoise de Montaigne, provided de Gournay a copy of the Essays and charged her of its publication. Marie de Gournay did so, publishing the first posthume edition of the Essays with a long preface praising Montaigne's ideas. She made a remarkable work on Montaigne's Essays, translating Latin sentences, precising references, etc.

In Paris, Marie de Gournay met Henri Louis Haber de Montmort, while the famous erudite Justus Lipsius presented her to Europe as a literary woman. De Gournay found herself protectors, by writing for Queen Margo, Henri IV, Marie de Médicis, Louis XIII, the marquise de Guercheville, the ministers Villeroy and Jeannin, and Richelieu. She thus obtained the privilege to be able to publish her own work, and was awarded by Richelieu a modic royal pension. Marie de Gournay was often calomnied, in person and in her work. She was single, and lived self-sufficiently.

As a Catholic, she was hostile to Protestants but remained close to libertines such as Théophile de Viau, Gabriel Naudé and François La Mothe Le Vayer, to whom she would legate her library, which she herself had received from Montaigne (who in turn had inherited it from La Boétie). In 1610 she engaged in the debate on the assassination of Henri IV, strongly defending the Jesuits.

Marie de Gournay taught herself Latin and Greek. She translated works by Sallust, Ovid, Virgil, and Tacitus. She wrote verses about her cat, Léonore and Joan of Arc, adapted Ronsard, wrote on the instruction of princes, and criticized the Précieuses. She died on 13 July 1645, aged 79 and is buried at the Saint-Eustache Church in Paris.

[edit] Quotes

• "Happy are you, reader, if you do not belong to this sex to which all good is forbidden" ^[1]

[edit] Works

• Adieu de l'ame du Roy de France et de Navarre Henry le Grand à la Royne, avec la defence des Peres Jesuistes / par la damoiselle de G.
• L'ombre de la damoiselle de Gournay (1626, 1634 and 1641)
• Les advis ou Les présens de la demoiselle de Gournay (1634)
• Les essais de Michel seigneur de Montaigne : nouvelle édition exactement purgée des défauts des precedentes, selon le vray original, et enrichie & augmentée aux marges du nom des autheurs qui y sont citez, & de la version de leurs passages, avec des observations très importantes & necessaires pour le soulagement du lecteur, ensemble la vie de l'auteur, & deux tables, l'une des chapitres, & l'autre des principales matières, de beaucoup plus ample & plus utile que celles des dernieres éditions / [Henri Estienne] ; [Marie de Jars de Gournay]
• First volume of her complete works (1641) was published in 1997 by Rodopi

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Feminism

[edit] External links

• Works accessible on Gallica's website
• Biography (French)