Marie-Catherine de Villedieu

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MCV was one of the very few women to earn her living by her pen in France as early as the seventeenth century. She was productive in many genres, held a significant place in the development of the novel (epistolary, historical, scandalous, and pseudo-autobiographical, as well as various non-novelistic forms of fiction), and was the first Frenchwoman to have a dramatic work produced by a professional theatre company. Her canon, however, is still disputed, with the authorship of several works in doubt.
Kuizenga, Donna. “Madame de Villeneuve”. Seventeenth-Century French Writers, edited by Françoise Jaouen, Gale, 2003.
  • BirthName: Marie-Catherine Desjardins
    The name Hortense has been mistakenly attributed to MCV by several scholars, and she has been called (and in 2012 is still called by OCLC WorldCat) Marie-Catherine-Hortense. But she invariably signed herself Marie-Catherine.
    Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
    25
    OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

  • Self-constructed: Madame de Villedieu
    Although Antoine Boësset, sieur de Villedieu , never made good on his repeated promises to marry Marie-Catherine Desjardins, she took his name even during his lifetime and put it on her title-pages after his death. Madame de Villedieu became her best-known name as an author.
    Kuizenga, Donna. “Madame de Villeneuve”. Seventeenth-Century French Writers, edited by Françoise Jaouen, Gale, 2003.
    385-6
  • Indexed: Mademoiselle Desjardins
    She published under this name until 1668.
    Kuizenga, Donna. “Madame de Villeneuve”. Seventeenth-Century French Writers, edited by Françoise Jaouen, Gale, 2003.
    385
    OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
    ; des Jardins; Ville Dieu
Head-and-shoulders oval engraving of Marie-Catherine de Villedieu by Charles Devrits, published in "Poètes normands" by Louis Henri Baratte, 1845. She is wearing a dark dress , jewelled brooch, and string of huge pearls. Her hair is smooth on top, in ringlets below.

Milestones

Probably 1640

Marie-Catherine Desjardins (who later called herself MCV ) was born, perhaps in Paris, the middle one of three children in her family.
Her exact birthdate is unknown. A document giving her age as forty-five when she died would have her born in 1638. Her father gives her birthdate as 1640 in a letter, and she herself confirms this date in a letter of 1667. Badeau de Somaize wrote in 1661 that she was born in 1633.
Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
28
Klein, Nancy Deighton. The Female Protagonist in the Nouvelles of Madame de Villedieu. Peter Lang, 1992.
xxi
Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
17, 28
Kuizenga, Donna. “Madame de Villeneuve”. Seventeenth-Century French Writers, edited by Françoise Jaouen, Gale, 2003.
385

1658

The sonnet Jouissance by Marie-Catherine Desjardins , said to be connected with her love for Antoine de Boësset, sieur de Villedieu , was written this year, according to Micheline Cuénin .
Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
17

April 1662

MCV 's Manlius Torquatus, a tragedy in verse and prose, made her the first woman to have a play professionally produced in France (in Paris of course).
Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
18
Kuizenga, Donna. “Madame de Villeneuve”. Seventeenth-Century French Writers, edited by Françoise Jaouen, Gale, 2003.
386
Morrissette, Bruce Archer. The Life and Works of Marie-Catherine Desjardins. 1947.
64-5

1672

MCV began with four parts the anonymous publication of her pseudo-autobiographical fiction Mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière (which she completed with two more parts in 1674).
Kuizenga, Donna. “Madame de Villeneuve”. Seventeenth-Century French Writers, edited by Françoise Jaouen, Gale, 2003.
388

20 October 1683

MCV died at her family's manor of Clinchemore, Saint-Rémy-du-Val.
Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
58

Biography

Birth and Background

Probably 1640

Marie-Catherine Desjardins (who later called herself MCV ) was born, perhaps in Paris, the middle one of three children in her family.
Her exact birthdate is unknown. A document giving her age as forty-five when she died would have her born in 1638. Her father gives her birthdate as 1640 in a letter, and she herself confirms this date in a letter of 1667. Badeau de Somaize wrote in 1661 that she was born in 1633.
Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
28
Klein, Nancy Deighton. The Female Protagonist in the Nouvelles of Madame de Villedieu. Peter Lang, 1992.
xxi
Cuénin, Micheline. Roman et société sous Louis XIV : Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins 1640-1683). Atelier Reproduction des Thèses & Librairie Honoré; Champion, 1979.
17, 28
Kuizenga, Donna. “Madame de Villeneuve”. Seventeenth-Century French Writers, edited by Françoise Jaouen, Gale, 2003.
385

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