Marie-Madeleine Pioche of La Vergne , Comtesse de La Fayette (1634 – 1693), was a French woman of letters. She is notably the author of The Princess of Cleves.
Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne was born into a family of the lower nobility, close to Cardinal Richelieu. When she was 15, her father was killed. The following year, she became lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne of Austria and began to acquire a literary education from the grammarian Ménage, who introduced her to fashionable literary salons.
In 1655, Marie-Madeleine married, at the age of 21, François Motier, Count of La Fayette, eighteen years her senior. They will have two sons. In Paris, Marie-Madeleine enters the high society of the court and opens her own salon. She writes and meets great literary minds, such as La Rochefoucauld, Racine and Boileau. In 1662, she published La Princesse de Montpensier anonymously. In 1678, she published her most famous work:La Princesse de Clèves.
Madame de La Fayette is a writer recognized by her peers, in her time as today.