Madame de Lafayette, born Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne but known as the comtesse de Lafayette after her marriage, came from a family of the noblesse de robe (class who gained their nobility through holding high office) that was well connected at court. Her father, Marc Pioche de La Vergne, was an aristocrat and an engineer close to Cardinal Richelieu (Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu), chief minister of state to Louis XIII. Her mother, the daughter of the king's doctor, was an attendant of Marie-Madeleine de Vignerot, marquise de Combalet, the cardinal's niece. The family lived in the affluent Luxembourg district of Paris, the area where Lafayette lived for most of her life. She and her parents were at the center of intellectual life; they mixed with men such as Jacques Le Pailleur, Etienne Pascal (the father of Blaise), and the abbé Hédelin d'Aubignac...