OF

MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ

ΤΟ

HER DAUGHTER

AND

HER FRIENDS.

MINDES

AN ENLARGED EDITION,

TRANSLATED FROM THE PARIS EDITION OF 1806.

IN NINE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. WALKER; W. OTRIDGE AND SON;
WILKIE AND ROBINSON; WHITE AND COCHRANE;
J. CUTHELL; CADELL AND DAVIES; LACKINGTON,
ALLEN, AND CO.; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, orme,
AND BROWN; J. RICHARDSON; BLACK, PARRY, AND
KINGSBURY; J. MAWMAN; SHERWOOD, neely, anD
JONES; GALe and curtIS; AND R. BALDWIN.

1811.

PREFACE.

As the present English version of madame de Sévigné's correspondence with her daughter and her friends contains every letter inserted in the late Paris edition, from the date of the first, in 1647, to the last which she probably wrote in 1595, we cannot give a more accurate account of the work, than by translating part of the preface of the French editor, M. P. A. Grouvelle, who appears, from the many historical and other notes with which he has embellished the collection, to be a man of considerable talents, and extensive reading.

"What the editor, long an assiduous reader of madame de Sévigné's letters, has often wished to see executed by another, he has at last executed himself, and now presents to the public. The undertaking was a pleasure of choice; he wished the entertainment, which the perusal of the letters af

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forded, to want no seasoning, and he has endeavoured to render it complete. The plan is the result of his own feelings of what was defective; if it should not satisfy the public, the reason will be, that he has not been able to satisfy himself.

"The letters, as models of style, form an admirable book. They place us in the intimate confidence of persons, who to celebrity, joined a pure character and an amiable mind: a species of attraction that is afforded by no other work, ancient or modern. They are interesting also as a collection of anecdotes, and they exhibit the picture of an age, and a court, that have greatly influenced the manners, not of France only, but of all Europe. They will accordingly be sought after by every mind, whether little or much cultivated and it is not easy to regard with indifference an attempt that is made to render their perusal more pleasing.

"Almost all the editions of madame de Sévigné's letters that have hitherto appeared, are copies of that of 1754, with the several letters added that have been discovered since. But numerous as these editions are, there is