SOURCE: “‘L'art de detourner les choses’: Sociability as Euphoria in Madeleine de Scudéry's Conversations,” in Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, Vol. XIII, No. 24, 1986, pp. 17-24.

In the following essay, Goldsmith examines Scudéry's Conversations in light of modern theories of sociability. She argues that, by establishing in this work a utopian arena for conversation set apart from social limitations, Scudéry enabled the creation of a conversational model that could be a new standard for society.

The writings of Madeleine de Scudéry are often cited as textual enactments of seventeenth-century codes of politesse and sociability. Her novels, writes Magendie, gave their original readers “a wordly education” by depicting an elaborate idealized vision of aristocratic social life.¹ Sainte-Beuve describes her as “une des institutrices de la société”, and he considers her collection of model “conversations” and “entretiens” her best work.² Published over a twelve-year period...