Women letter writers in early modern Europe created lengthy correspondences, where they left a rich historical legacy. These were educated women who would describe their lives, the world around them, and historical events.

Over time, a large number of women's correspondences have been made the subject of publications. Some among them ignored the literary value of these missives that were sometimes circulated by their recipients. Some correspondences were, on the other hand, strictly private and their literary value—and historic value, as well—was not revealed until the rediscovery of these letters, perhaps long after the death of their authors, as in the case of Élisabeth Bégon, whose correspondence was not discovered until 1932 in the archives of the French Ministry of the Navy.

It is usually agreed that what makes these letters distinctive emanates from their spontaneity. Marie de Sévigné was the incarnation of this quality, to the point of becoming considered by many as the archetype of the woman letter writer, and an altogether literary author, even among her contemporaries, such as Suzanne Curchod:

In 1669, the famous Letters of a Portuguese Nun appeared, presented as a translation of five letters sent by a Portuguese nun to a French officer. For a long time, these letters were accepted as authentic letters written by Mariana Alcoforado, before being definitively shown by a modern critic to be a work of literary fiction, attributed to Gabriel de Guilleragues.

Some women who wrote letters did not lead remarkable lives. For instance Nellie Weeton was born in Lancashire and she was poorly treated by her brother and husband. She copied all the letters to her brother into journals and because some of these are extant they supply an insight into life in her time.

The frontier between reality and fiction becomes blurry between literature and correspondence, above all when novelists turned this writing technique into a literary device that would become the epistolary novel, a genre that reached its peak during the Enlightenment when writers tried to persuade readers that between their hands was a real correspondence, which is what Jean-Jacques Rousseau more or less achieved with Julie, or the New Heloise.

Some famous women letter writers

Heloise Juliette Adam Jeanne d'Albret Sophie Arnould Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine Louisa Dow Benton Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon Catherine de Bourbon Adélaïde de la Briche Cécile Bruyère Marie-Angélique de Coulanges Christine de Pisan Zulma Carraud Marquise de Caylus Isabelle de Charrière Anastasie de Circourt Mary Clarke Sophie Cottin Hélisenne de Crenne Suzanne Curchod Madeleine Des Roches Catherine Des Roches Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand Louise d'Épinay Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin Françoise de Graffigny Marie-Madeleine Hachard Anne-Catherine Helvétius Maria Theresa Sophie d'Houdetot Alix de Lamartine Ninon de Lenclos Amélie Lenormant Julie de Lespinasse Blandine Liszt Marie Anne de Mailly Françoise de Maintenon Sophie de Maraise Marguerite de Navarre Mary Montagu Matilda of Flanders Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Mothe-Guyon Juliette Récamier Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni Manon Roland Gabrielle Roy Madeleine de Sablé Madame de Saint-Huberty Mariquita Sánchez George Sand Marie de Sévigné Marguerite de Launay, baronne de Staal Germaine de Staël Sophie Swetchine Claudine Guérin de Tencin Marie-Anne de La Trémoille Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Jane Vigor Sophie Volland Nellie Weeton (1776–1849)

See also Women's writing Nu shu Écriture féminine Epistolary novel Women's history

References

Sources Lettres de femmes: textes inédits et oubliés du XVIe au XVIIIe", (éd.) Elisabeth C. Goldsmith and Colette H. Winn, Paris, H. Champion, 2005, 448 p. L’épistolaire au féminin : correspondances de femmes, XVIIIe au XXe, (éd.) Brigitte Diaz, Jürgen Siess, Caen, Presses universitaires de Caen, 2006 Marie-France Silver, Marie-Laure Girou-Swiderski, Femmes en toutes lettres : les épistolières du XVIIIe, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 2000 Josée Chomel, Philippe Chomel, Michel Cabaud, Madame de Sévigné à Grignan, une épistolière en Provence, Lyon, Aubanel, 1996 Lionel Duisit, Madame Du Deffand, épistolière, Genève, Droz, 1963 Daniel Des Brosses, La Palatine : l’incorrigible épistolière aux lettres, Paris, France, 2004 Rodolphe Trouilleux, N’oubliez pas Iphigénie : biographie de la cantatrice et épistolière Sophie Arnould, 1740-1802, Grenoble, Alzieu, 1999 Sophie Marcotte, Gabrielle Roy épistolière, Ottawa, Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2003 Catherine Blondeau, Julie de Lespinasse épistolière", 1761-1776, Lille, A.N.R.T, Université de Lille III, 1994 Josette Chéry-Sobolewski, Madame Riccoboni épistolière, Paris, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1993 Mireille Bossis, Charles. A. Porter, L’épistolarité à travers les siècles : geste de communication et/ou geste d’écriture, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner, 1987