Scudéry, Madeleine de

Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701) was a French novelist, poet, philosopher and salonnière. She gained prominence as a writer through the publication of a series of epic, multivolume novels, renowned for their presentation of an idealized version of salon culture, as well as their engagement with heroic, romantic, and philosophical themes. As a writer, her popularity attracted much adoration and criticism from all echelons of seventeenth-century French literary culture. Her salon, the Samedi, was attended by the most important personages of the time in Paris. Though she had been long overlooked by scholars, recently her work has gained a new appreciation for its lasting literary beauty and its presentation of protofeminist ideas.