Marie de Gournay

Marie de Gournay (; 6 October 1565 – 13 July 1645) was a French writer. Author of a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including The Equality of Men and Women (Égalité des hommes et des femmes, 1622) and The Ladies' Grievance (Grief des dames, 1626), she insisted that women should be educated. Gournay was also an editor and commentator of Michel de Montaigne. After Montaigne's death, Gournay edited and published his Essays.

Life She was born in Paris in 1565. Her father, Guillaume Le Jars, was treasurer to King Henry III of France. In 1568, he obtained feudal rights to the Gournay estate in Picardy, and in 1573, after he purchased the Neufvy estate, he became Seigneur de Neufvy et de Gournay. The family moved to Gournay-sur-Aronde after her father's sudden death in 1577. and became his "adopted daughter". She published her first book in 1594, Le Proumenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne. In 1595, Gournay published the first posthumous edition of his Essays and in 1598 she published a revised edition. She settled in Paris, determined to earn a living from writing. She published a timely discussion on the education of children in 1608, Bienvenue à Monseigneur le Duc d'Anjou. This work brought her to wider attention among Paris intellectuals. Her 1610 work Adieu de l'ame du Roy de France et de Navarre caused a scandal because it defended Jesuits, who were suspected of having conspired to assassinate King Henry IV. Gournay was attacked in the satirical pamphlet The Anti-Gournay and was pictured as an old shrew. Queen Margo became her patron. Gournay was invited to the Queen's royal salon and received financial support on a quarterly basis.

She translated works by Sallust, Ovid, Virgil, and Tacitus. Gournay also wrote verses about her cat Léonore (also the name of Montaigne's daughter) and Joan of Arc, adapted Ronsard, wrote on the instruction of princes, and criticized the Précieuses. In 1619 she published the translation Versions de quelques pièces de Virgile, Tacite, Salluste with a preface in which she opposed François de Malherbe's view that the French language had to be purged. Gournay was accused of being ridiculous, past-orientated, and of being an old maid.

In her 1626 novel Le Promenoir de M. de Montaigne qui traite de l’amour dans l’œuvre de Plutarque, she explored the dangers women face when they become dependent on men. A collection of her works was published in 1626 entitled L'ombre de la damoiselle de Gournay. She moved to an apartment on the rue Saint Honoré and helped to establish the French Academy. The small pension granted to her by Cardinal Richelieu allowed her to publish a 1635 edition of Montaigne's Essays. In 1641 she published another collection of her own works Les Advis, ou les Presens de la Demoiselle de Gournay. She died in Paris in 1645, Marie de Gournay is now recognized as the first woman in France to contribute to literary criticism and one of the first to argue forcibly on the equality of men and women. Her final collected works ran to nearly 1,000 pages.

Views on women's education Gournay's arguments for women's right to education had a religious underpinning. Gournay was Roman Catholic and known as an opponent of the Protestant movement in the French wars of religion. She advocated for women's education in two treatises, Égalité des Hommes et des Femmes

"Happy are you, reader, if you do not belong to this sex to which all good is forbidden"

Works Adieu de l'âme du Roy de France et de Navarre Henry le Grand à la Royne, avec la défence des Pères Jésuites / par la damoiselle de G. L'ombre de la damoiselle de Gournay (1626, 1634 and 1641) Les advis ou Les présens de la demoiselle de Gournay (1634) Les essais de Michel seigneur de Montaigne : nouvelle édition exactement purgée des défauts des precedentes, selon le vray original, et enrichie & augmentée aux marges du nom des autheurs qui y sont citez, & de la version de leurs passages, avec des observations très importantes & necessaires pour le soulagement du lecteur, ensemble la vie de l'auteur, & deux tables, l'une des chapitres, & l'autre des principales matières, de beaucoup plus ample & plus utile que celles des dernieres éditions / [Henri Estienne]; [Marie de Jars de Gournay] First volume of her complete works (1641) was published in 1997 by Rodopi

Publications Œuvres complètes : Les advis ou Les présens de la demoiselle de Gournay; T. Du Bray, 1634 Lire en ligne sur Gallica avant 1588 : un sonnet et une ode dans les « Regrets funèbres sur la mort d'Aymée ». In Œuvres de Pierre de Brach (Le Tombeau d'Aymée) 1594 : Le Proumenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne 1595 : Préface sur les Essais de Michel, seigneur de Montaigne Lire en ligne sur gallica, in Les Essais de Michel Seigneur de Montaigne 1595 : hommage en prose à Jean de Sponde, dans Response du Feu Sieur de Sponde... 1598 : Preface sur les Essais de Michel, seigneur de Montaigne, in Les Essais de Michel Seigneur de Montaigne 1608 : Bienvenue de Monseigneur le duc d'Anjou 1610 : Adieu de l'Ame du Roy de France et de Navarre Henry le Grand, avec la Défense des Peres Jesuites 1619 : Versions de quelques pièces de Virgile, Tacite, Salluste, avec l'Institution de Monseigneur, frere unique du Roy (comprend également un « traicté sur la Poësie »). 1620 : Eschantillons de Virgile 1620 : deux poèmes dans Les Muses en deuil 1621 : Traductions. Partie du Quatriesme de l'Eneide, avec une oraison de Tacite, et une de Saluste 1622 : Égalité des Hommes et des Femmes mettant en scène Michel de Montaigne, Marie de Gournay et Françoise de La Chassaigne Dossier de presse. Jean-Claude Idée, Parce que c'était lui, pièce de théâtre parue en 2014 dans les Cahiers des Universités Populaires du Théâtre et jouée au Théâtre Montparnasse, à Paris. Marie de Gournay, "Escritos sobre la igualdad y en defensa de las mujeres" M. Cabré i Pairet & E. Rubio Hernández (Eds.) Spanish translation by M. Cabré i Pairet, E. Rubio Hernández & E. Teixidor Aránegui. Madrid, CSIC, 2014. http://libros.csic.es/product_info.php?products_id=772. Jenny Diski, "Apology for the Woman Writing", Virago Press, 2008 : a work of historical fiction based on the life of Marie de Gournay