In order to give an idea of the place that Mme. de Sevigne holds in the opinion of the average Frenchman, we quote the final words of M. Vallery-Radot: 

“To take a place among the greatest writers, without ever having written a book or even having thought of writing one—­this is what seems impossible, and yet this is what happened to Mme. de Sevigne.  Her contemporaries knew her as a woman distinguished for her esprit, frank, playful and sprightly humor, irreproachable conduct, loyalty to her friends, and as an idolizer of her daughter; no one suspected that she would partake of the glory of our classical authors—­and she, less than any one.  She had immortalized herself, without wishing or knowing it, by an intimate correspondence which is, to-day, universally regarded as one of the most precious treasures and one of the most original monuments to French literature.  To deceive the ennui of absence, she wrote to her daughter all that she had in her heart and that came to her mind—­what she did, wished to do, saw and learned, news of court, city, Brittany, army, everything—­sadly or gayly, according to the subject, always with the most keen, ardent, delicate, and touching sentiments of tenderness and sympathy.  She amuses, instructs, interests, moves to tears or laughter.  All that passes within or before her, passes within and before us.  If she depicts an object, we see it; if she relates an event, we are present at its occurrence; if she makes a character talk, we hear his words, see his gestures, and distinguish his accent.  All is true, real, living:  this is more than talent—­it is enchantment.  Generations pass away in turn; a single one, or, rather, a group escapes the general oblivion—­the group of friends of Mme. de Sevigne.”

A woman with characteristics the very opposite of those of Mme. de Sevigne, but who in some respects resembled her, was Mme. de La Fayette.  Of her life, very little is to be said, except in regard to her lasting friendship and attachment for La Rochefoucauld.  She was born in 1634, and, with Mme. de Sevigne, was probably the best educated among the great women of the seventeenth century.  She was faithful to her husband, the Count of La Fayette, who, in 1665, took her to Paris, where she formed her lifelong attachment for the great La Rochefoucauld, and where she won immediate recognition for her exquisite politeness and as a woman with a large fund of common sense.

After her marriage, she seemed to have but one interest—­La Rochefoucauld, just as that of Mme. de Maintenon was Louis XIV. and that of Mme. de Sevigne—­her daughter.  These three prominent women illustrate remarkably well that predominant trait of French women—­faithfulness to a chosen cause; each one of the three was vitally concerned in an enduring, a legitimate, and sincere attachment, which state of affairs gives a certain distinction to the society of the time of Louis XIV.