Scudery

Scudery, MADELEINE, MADAME DE (1607-1701), French romancist, was born at Havre, and was left an orphan at six years of age. After being educated by her relatives, she went to Paris and joined the Rambouillet circle, and was considered one of its brightest ornaments. Her brother GEORGE was a popular writer, and it is known that she wrote some of his works. She was very fond of society and pleasure, but always did a considerable amount of writing every day, Her novels or romances, which were tremendously successful, are very voluminous, and to the modern reader are very tedious reading. Even in other countnes her Clelie (10 vols., 1656), and Artamene, ou le Grand Cyrus (10 vols., 1649-53), and other works, were widely read. There is much affectation in them, and the Map of Tenderness in the first-named work has been often ridiculed. Her Letters, being more natural, are better than her romances.