Madame d'Aulnoy

Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy (1650/1651–4 January 1705), also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French writer known for her fairy tales. When she termed her works contes de fées (fairy tales), she originated the term that is now generally used for the genre.

Biography

d'Aulnoy was born in Barneville-la-Bertran, Calvados, as a member of the noble family of Le Jumel de Barneville. In 1666, she was given at the age of fifteen in an arranged marriage to a Parisian thirty years older—François de la Motte, Baron d'Aulnoy, of the household of the duc de Vendôme. The baron was a freethinker and a known gambler. Over the next three years, the couple had three children. In 1669, the Baron d'Aulnoy was accused of treason but the accusations, in which Mme d'Aulnoy appeared to be involved, proved to be false, and two men implicated in the accusation were executed. Marie-Catherine's mother fled the country as she was also allegedly involved, however it is not known if the Comtesse d'Aulnoy herself had anything to do with the charges. She had three more children and discontinued involvement in the Paris social scene for twenty years. During this period, she later said that she had traveled to Spain, with her mother, who remained in Madrid, and England, the latter voyage cannot be confirmed however. Much of this time was also spent writing stories inspired by these destinations; these stories later became her most popular works.