Madame de Maintenon au miroir de sa correspondance: réhabilitation du personnage et redécouverte d'une écriture féminine

Any serious evaluation of a scriptural practice, male or female, falls within the epistolary or other genres and involves the use of primary sources. Any historical interpretation of these writings also means taking into account all of a corpus, with changes if we want to avoid warping interpretation. In the case of Madame de Maintenon, these two conditions have not, so far, not been met since the historian as literature researcher did not have any complete critical edition of her letters. The complex personality of Madame de Maintenon, and her often contradictory aspects, already aroused among her contemporaries. The life of Madame de Maintenon merged with that of the king until his death in 1715. The negative image of Madame de Maintenon transmitted by Saint-Simon and reinforced by Michelet continues in French historiography, especially for authors who do not refer themselves to the writings of the Marquise. Keywords: Madame de Maintenon; scriptural practice; Saint-Simon; French historiography; writings of the Marquise