Biography of Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, Madame du Deffand.
Madame du Deffand, a popular and influential Parisian salon hostess, was widely respected for her keen wit and intellect, and she was a prolific correspondent with a number of notable thought & literary figures of her time. Her letters to people such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle were published after her death by close friend Horace Walpole.
Author Benedetta Craveri, a professor of French literature, originally published the biography in Italian as "Madame du Deffand e il suo mondo" in 1982. She won awards for the work in Italy & France - this U.S. edition & English translation was published a little over a decade later in 1994.