Alternative title:

women, letters and growing old in eighteenth-century France

Abstract:

‘Women seem to be destined solely for our pleasure. When they no longer have that attraction, they have lost everything’ (letter from Diderot to Sophie Volland, 1762). How typical was this view of the ‘older woman’ in the eighteenth century? What was it like for women of intelligence and sensibility to grow old in such a culture?
By studying the correspondences of four prominent women (Françoise de Graffigny, Marie Du Deffand, Marie Riccoboni and Isabelle de Charrière) during their... Expand abstract

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Publication status:

Published

Peer review status:

Peer reviewed

Metrics

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