Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles

The recorded working language is French. Works named in the authority record are Avis d'une mère à sa fille, Œuvres complètes de Madame la Marquise de Lambert, Avis d'une mère à son fils, La Femme hermite and Psyché en grec.

The only daughter of Étienne de Marguenat, Seigneur de Courcelles, and his wife, Monique Passart, Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles was born and died in Paris. She lost her father, an officer of the fiscal court of Paris, in 1650, when she was just three years old. She was raised by her mother, who was distinguished by the lightness of her habits, and by her mother's second husband, the literary dilettante François Le Coigneux de Bachaumont, who instilled in her a love of literature. At a young age, writes her friend Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle, "she often stole away from the pleasures of youth to read alone, and she began, of her own accord, to write extracts of what struck her the most. It was either subtle reflections on the human heart, or ingenious turns of phrase, but most often reflections." On 22 February 1666, she married Henri de Lambert, marquis de Saint-Bris, a distinguished officer who was to become a lieutenant-general and the governor of Luxembourg. Their union was very happy and they had two children: a son, Henri-François (1677–1754), and a daughter, Marie-Thérèse (1679 -1731), who became Comtesse de Saint-Aulaire by her marriage. The Marquise de Lambert was widowed in 1686 and raised her two young children while carrying on lengthy and troublesome lawsuits against her husband's family to save her children's property. In 1698, she rented the north-west half of the hôtel de Nevers, located on the rue de Richelieu near the current site of the Bibliothèque nationale. Starting in 1710, in her beautiful drawing room decorated by Robert de Cotte, she launched her famous literary salon. According to her friend the Abbé de La Rivière, "She fell victim to a colic of cultivation and wit, an illness which stuck her suddenly and which remained incurable until her death." She received visitors twice a week: literary people on Tuesdays and high society on Wednesdays, without, however, seeking to establish an impenetrable barrier between the two worlds; on the contrary, she liked to interest the well-born in literature and to introduce writers to the advantages of frequenting society, and regular visitors could pass without constraint from one day to the other. The Tuesdays began about one o’clock in the afternoon. After a very fine dinner, "academic conferences" on a philosophical or literary theme took place. Political and religious discussions were absolutely prohibited. Every guest was required to give a personal opinion or to read some excerpts from their latest work; on the morning of the gathering, says the Abbé de La Rivière, "the guests prepared wit for the afternoon." The lady of the house directed what her critics called "wit’s business office". She encouraged writers to the highest moral tone and contributed to orienting the movement of ideas toward new literary forms: from her salon originated Antoine Houdar de la Motte's attacks on the three unities, on versification, and on Homer, whom Madame de Lambert thought dull; which did not prevent her from receiving such partisans of the Classical writers as Anne Dacier, Father d’Olivet, or Valincour. The Marquise de Lambert was not socially conservative. She championed Montesquieu's satirical Persian Letters and succeeded in obtaining the author's election to the Académie française. She was one of the first society women to open her door to actors such as Adrienne Lecouvreur or Michel Baron. Fontenelle and Houdar de la Motte attended her salon, as well as Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, the poet Catherine Bernard, the Abbé de Bragelonne, Father Buffier, the Abbé de Choisy, Madame Dacier, the mathematician Dortous de Mairan, Fénelon, Hénault, Marivaux, the Abbé Mongault, Montesquieu, the lawyer Louis de Sacy (one of the Marquise's favorites), the Marquis de Sainte-Aulaire, Baronne Staal, Madame de Tencin (who received the Marquise's guests at her death in 1733), and the Abbé Terrasson. The Marquise de Lambert's salon was known as the antechamber of the Académie française. According to the Marquis d’Argenson, "she had brought about the election of half the members of the Academy." Madame de Lambert, says Fontenelle, "was not only ardent to serve her friends, without waiting for their request, nor the humiliating exposition of their need; but a good deed to be done, even for someone she had no connection with, always interested her intensely, and the circumstances had to be especially contrary, for her not to succumb. Some bad outcomes of her generosity had not reformed her, and she always remained equally ready to risk doing good."

• Lettre de madame la Marquise de ***, sur les Fables Nouvelles [d’Antoine Houdar de La Motte]. Avec la réponse servant d’apologie, 1719 • Avis d’une mère à son fils [A Mother's Advice to Her Son], 1726 • Réflexions nouvelles sur les femmes, ou Métaphysique d’amour [New Reflections on Women, or Metaphysics of Love], 1727 • Avis d’une mère à sa fille [A Mother's Advice to Her Daughter], 1728 • Traité de l’Amitié [Essay on Friendship], 1732 • Traité de la Vieillesse [Essay on Old Age], 1732 The Marquise de Lambert's Works were published a number of times, beginning in 1747; besides the pieces listed above, they contained Dialogue entre Alexandre et Demosthène sur l’égalité des biens [Dialogue between Alexander and Demosthenes on the Equality of Happiness]; Psyché, en grec Âme [Psyche, Soul in Greek]; La Femme ermite, nouvelle [The Female Hermit]; letters, portraits, and discourses.

• Advice from a Mother to Her Son and Daughter; trans. William Hatchett. London: Tho. Worrall, 1729. • The Philosophy of Love, or New Reflections on the Fair Sex; trans. John Lockman. London: J. Hawkins, 1729 and 1737. • The Marchioness de Lambert's Letters to her Son and Daughter, On True Education and Dialogue Between Alexander and Diogenes on the Equality of Happiness; trans. Rowell. London: M. Cooper, 1749. • The Works of the Marchioness de Lambert; trans. anon. London: W. Owen, 1749. Further editions in 1756, 1769, 1770 (Dublin: J. Potts), 1781. • Essays on Friendship and Old Age; trans. Eliza Ball Hayley. London: J. Dodsley, 1780. American Libraries archive • The Fair Solitary, or Female Hermit; trans. anon. Philadelphia: William Spottswood, 1790. • "Advice of a Mother to Her Daughter"; trans. anon. In The Young Lady's Parental Monitor. London: Nathaniel Patten, 1792. American Libraries archive. And in Angelica's Ladies Library, or, Parents and Guardians Present. London: J. Hamilton, 1794. Google Books Republished, with a new introduction by Vivien Jones, Thoemmes Press, 1995. • "Advice of a Mother to Her Son"; trans. anon. In Practical Morality, or, a Guide to Men and Manners. Hartford: William Andrus, 1841. Google Books • New Reflections on Women: A New Translation and Introduction; trans. Ellen McNiven Hine. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1995.