Marie-Madeleine Bonafous d'Albert

Marie-Madeleine Bonafon ( – ), sometimes referred to as Marie-Madeleine Bonafous d'Albert, was a French novelist imprisoned for her novel Tanastés, a roman à clef of the sex life of King Louis XV of France.

Biography

Marie-Madeleine Bonafon was born on in Versailles, the daughter of Jean-Pierre de Bonafon, squire to Sieur d'Albert, and Marie Le Noir. Little is known of her early life except that she was educated at the Abbaye de Pentemont. In 1740, she moved to the Palace of Versailles to serve as femme de chambre to the Princesse de Montauban.

A police investigation into the novel resulted in the arrest of 21 booksellers, publishers, and others, including Bonafon herself in August 1745, who was interrogated by Claude Henri Feydeau de Marville, the lieutenant general of police. She insisted that Tanastés was just a fairy story and not intended to be about King Louis, despite the key.

Bonafon published another novel, Confidences d'une jolie femme ("Secrets of a Pretty Woman", 1775). and three plays: Le Destin, Les Dons, and Le Demi-Savant. The whereabouts of these manuscripts, if they survive, is unknown.