Marianne Alissan de la Tour
Marianne de la Tour | |
|---|---|
 Portrait de Marianne Alissan de la Tour | |
| Born | 1730 Paris, France |
| Died | 7 September 1789 (aged 58–59) Saint-Mandé, France |
| Known for | Correspondences with the Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
Marianne Alissan de la Tour (1730 – 7 September 1789) was a French writer and became known for her correspondences with the renowned philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[1]
Biography
De la Tour was born in Paris, the daughter of Jean Baptiste Merlet de Foussomme. She married Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Alissan de La Tour (b. 1727), but the marriage was unhappy and they separated.[1]
She is mostly known for exchanging letters with Rousseau. She was an admirer of his works and they wrote to each other from 1761 to 1776.[2]
Her letters contain many figures borrowed from the previous century, but also many from La Nouvelle Héloïse, in view of a usage that had been in the process of being codified only a few decades earlier. Mme de la Tour, a model correspondent, ‘good student’ and assiduous reader of Rousseau, is an example of those unknown ladies who helped to establish the form of letter-writing correspondence by drawing inspiration from literature, illustrating Habermas's theory that in the mid-eighteenth century the spheres of the public and the private were mutually fertile.[3]
Marianne Alissan de la Tour died in Saint-Mandé, France, on 7 September 1789.[2]
Selected works
She was author of Précis pour M. J.J. Rousseau, en réponse a l'Exposé succinct de M. Hume[4] (1767) and Jean Jaques Rousseau vangé par son amie, ou Morale pratico-philosophico-encyclopédique des Coryphées de la secte[5] (1779).
References
- 1 2 Electronic Enlightenment: Marie Anne Alissan de la Tour [née Merlet de Foussomme]. Electronic Enlightenment Biographical Dictionary. March 2022. doi:10.13051/ee:bio/alissmarie022984.
- 1 2 "Marianne de La Tour (1730-1789)". BnF. Retrieved 2026-08-26.
- ↑ Richard-Pauchet, Odile (March 2012). Francalanza, Eric (ed.). Jean-Jacques Rousseau-Marianne Alissan de la Tour, ou le Pygmalion renversé. Brest, France. pp. 309–320.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ Exposé succinct de la contestation qui s'est élevée entre M. Hume. Et M. Rousseau, avec les pièces justificatives.
- ↑ Jean Jacques Rousseau vangé par son amie ou Morale pratico-philosophico-encyclopédique des coryphées de la secte. 1779.