Marie Le Jars de Gournay, of Paris, was born into a minor aristocratic family as the oldest of six children. After her birth, her father purchased the estate of Gournay-sur-Aronde, which is how “de Gournay” became part of the family name. At the age of 13, Gournay’s father passed away and the family moved to the estate to live a more economically safe lifestyle. Now living a secluded, country lifestyle, Gournay had to resort to unique ways of educating herself. She compared ancient Latin texts to French texts, mostly in secret, which successfully granted her the ability to read Latin. Because of the family’s financial situation, Gournay was expected to marry even though she had other, literary dreams in mind, which did not sit well with her mother.
Around the age of 18, Gournay read Essais de Michel de Montaigne and instantly became infatuated with Montaigne’s writings and ideas. In fact, she was so excited that her mother wanted to sedate her in order to calm her down. When she was visiting her family’s Paris home, she learned that he was in the city and eagerly reached out to him to meet up. Montaigne agreed and, thus, their lifelong friendship began.
After her mother’s death in 1591, the family’s financial burdens fell upon Gournay and as a result, lived the rest of her life in poverty. To make matters worse, Montaigne’s death in 1593 proved even more straining on the young writer. She soon moved back to Paris and lived independently. Then, in 1594, Montaigne’s widow reached out to ask Gournay if she would edit his final drafts, to which she gladly agreed. Later that year, she published her first and only novella entitled Le Promenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne (1594), that depicted an unmarried girl risking her life to abandon a marriage of convenience and follow the man of her dreams. The work was one of the first psychological novels written in France and includes digressions on politics, ethics, and philosophy. She strongly believed that women could control the independence of their souls through receiving a formal education. The novel became very successful, having been reprinted 5 times between 1594 and 1607.
Because the independent lifestyle of a single woman was not encouraged in Europe, Gournay received a great deal of criticism, despite surrounding herself with some of the “liveliest” minds of Europe. She was mocked for, essentially, being a woman who supported herself through reading and writing. Critics attacked her for having maids and cats, being educated, dabbling in alchemy, being “plain” and combative, and later for being old. In defense, she responded by writing The Equality of Men and Women (1622) to use her experience as a female intellectual to argue that men invented their superiority over women. In 1641, she wrote The Ladies’ Complaint, which was a more bitter condemnation of men’s oppressive treatment of women. The Apology for the Woman Writing (1641) was written to denounce those who stereotype educated women.
Known for her close relationship with Montaigne, and more importantly, for her demonstration of the equality of the sexes, Gournay became an influential editor, literary critic, poet, philosopher, novelist, and translator. She is recognized as the first woman in France to contribute to literary criticism, and one of the first to argue for the equality of men and women. Gournay lived a fulfilling life up until her death at the shocking age of 80, probably because she avoided children and the high mortality rate associated with it during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Sources
Conley, J. J. (n.d.). “Marie Le Jars de Gournay (1565-1645)”. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ISSN 2161-0002.
Whipp, Koren (2013). “Marie de Jars de Gournay”. Projet Continua, Vol.1, http://www.projectcontinua.org/marie-le-jars-de-gournay/
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