Ninon de Lenclos

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Ninon de Lenclos.

Anne "Ninon" de Lenclos , (born November 10, 1620 in Paris , † October 17, 1705 ibid) was a French courtesan and salonnière . In France she is considered one of the most outstanding women of the 17th century.

Life

Ninon de Lenclos was born the daughter of a French nobleman. Her mother tried to raise her religiously. The father, however, supported the daughter in her urge to learn and encouraged her to read Montaigne .

Despite her way of life as a courtesan, Ninon de Lenclos soon achieved great social recognition through her education and versatile musical talent, her intelligence and her wit of language, but also through her beauty. She became one of the stars of the Louis XIV era , but was never received at court. She was considered a master of witty conversation and taking part in her jours was a great social honor. Her friends included Queen Christine of Sweden , Madame de Maintenon (Ludwig's second wife), Molière and Madame de Sévigné .

Ninon de Lenclos attached great importance to her independence: she never married and had countless lovers. Even as an eighty-year-old, it is said, she was highly coveted by men. She herself did not take her caprices , as she described her love affairs, very seriously and never entered into a serious relationship with a man. She left the children that had emerged from her love affairs to their respective fathers, because she did not want to burden herself with childcare. One of her sons fell in love with her unsuspectingly when she was 60 years old. She revealed to him that she was his mother. Then he shot himself in front of her eyes.

Despite her seemingly immoral life, she was considered a good, loyal friend. She supported friends in need with money and deeds, but made sure that she was financially independent and did not owe anyone anything. She never made it very rich; she lived in a bourgeois apartment building, which was simple for nobility. Above all, she chose her love affairs based on her feelings and (contrary to custom at the time) independently of financial or political interests.

After her death at the age of 85, the Marquis de La Fare wrote in an obituary :

“I have known no woman more respectable and more worthy of mourning. She gathered the most distinguished people of Paris, who were attracted by the charm of her conversational talent. In the last part of her life her house was the only one where one knew how to appreciate the gifts of the spirit and where one could spend whole days without play and without boredom. "

Works

Ninon de Lenclos, copper engraving by Antoine-Jean-Baptiste Coupé (1784 - approx. 1852)

( Note: After Ninon de Lenclos' death numerous books appeared with alleged letters from her. Most of them were presumably fictitious to satisfy the readership's greed for sensations from the aristocratic life. This probably also applies to the letters that are still published today , because due to the variety of published books, nobody knows for sure which letters actually came from her.)

effect

Quotes

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
  • Love to make us happy does not have to be seen as a serious affair, but as an easy and cheerful thing.
  • Our sex has been thought of with all carelessness, and men have reserved the right to the really important qualities.
  • The religions are nothing but imaginations; there is no truth in it.
  • Women would get angry if a man they love wasn't jealous.
  • Love never dies from hunger, but it does from over-satiation.

literature

  • Letters from the Ninon of Lenclos to the Marquis of Sevigne, along with the letters from Babet to Bourfault, translated from French. Leipzig, Weidmann, 1751 ( digitized version )
  • The ninon of Lenclos life and letters along with the letters of Babet. Leipzig, Weidmann, 1755
  • Eckart von Naso: The great lover. Novel about Ninon de Lenclos. 1982. ISBN 3-7973-0099-9
  • Eugen de Mirecourt: Ninon de Lenclos . A. Weichert Berlin 1912
  • Johannes Bauermeister: "Ninon de Lenclos, the secret of eternal youth", Hohenau, undated, ca 1922 (trivial novel with the motif of the elixir of life)
  • Michel Vergé-Franceschi: Ninon de Lenclos: Libertine du Grand Siècle , Paris: Payot & Rivages, 2014, ISBN 978-2-228-91048-4

Web links

Commons : Ninon de Lenclos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Lenclos, Ninon de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lenclos, Anne de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French courtesan and salonnière
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1620
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1705
Place of death Paris