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TENCIN, CLAUDINE ALEXANDRINE GUERIN D...

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 614 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TENCIN, CLAUDINE ALEXANDRINE See also:GUERIN DE (1681-1749) , See also:French courtesan and author, was See also:born at See also:Grenoble. Her See also:father, See also:Antoine Guerin, sieur de Tencin, was See also:president of the See also:parlement of Grenoble. Claudine was brought up at a See also:convent near Grenoble and, at the wish of her parents, took the See also:veil, but See also:broke her vows and succeeded, in 1714, in gaining formal permission from the See also:pope for her secularization. She joined her See also:sister Mme. de Ferriol in See also:Paris, where she soon established a See also:salon, frequented by wits and roues. Among her numerous lovers were the See also:Chevalier Le See also:Camus See also:Destouches, the duc de See also:Richelieu, and according to her biographer many other persons of distinction. The last of her liaisons had a tragic ending. M. de la Fresnaye committed See also:suicide in her See also:house, and Mme. de Tencin spent some See also:time in the See also:Chatelet in consequence, but was soon liberated as the result of a See also:declaration of her innocence by the See also:Grand Conseil. From this time she devoted herself to See also:political intrigue, especially for the preferment of her See also:brother the See also:abbe Tencin, who became See also:archbishop of See also:Embrun and received a See also:cardinal's See also:hat. Eventually she formed a See also:literary salon, which had among its habitues See also:Fontenelle, See also:Montesquieu, the abbe de See also:Saint See also:Pierre, Pierre See also:Marivaux, See also:Alexis See also:Piron and others. Hers was the first of the Parisian literary salons to which distinguished foreigners were admitted, and among her See also:English guests were See also:Bolingbroke and See also:Chesterfield. By the See also:good sense with which she conducted what she called her " See also:menagerie," she almost succeeded in effacing the See also:record of her See also:early disgrace. She was a novelist of considerable merit.

Her novels have been highly praised for their simplicity and See also:

charm, the last qualities the circumstances of the writer's See also:life would See also:lead one to expect in her See also:work. The best of them is Memoires du See also:comte de Comminges (1735), which appeared, as did the other two, under the name of her nephews, MM. d'Argental and See also:Pont de Veyle, the real authorship being carefully concealed. Mme. de Tencin died on the 4th of See also:December 1749• Her See also:works, with those of Mme. de la Fayette, were edited by See also:Etienne and See also:Jay (Paris, '825); her novels were reprinted, with See also:introductory See also:matter by See also:Lescure, in '885; and her See also:correspondence in the Lettres de Mmes. de See also:Villars, de La Fayette et de Tencin (Paris, 1805-1832). See P. See also:Masson, Madame de Tencin (Paris, 1909).

End of Article: TENCIN, CLAUDINE ALEXANDRINE GUERIN DE (1681-1749)

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