Henriette-Julie de Murat

Henriette-Julie de Murat (1668 in Paris ^[1]– 9 September 1716 in Château de la Buzardière) was an aristocratic French writer of the late 17th century.

Life[]

She most likely spent most of her childhood in Paris.^[1] In 1691 she married Nicholas de Murat, Count de Gilbertez, and beginning in 1692 she frequently attended the salon of the Marquise de Lambert.^[1] There she socialized with Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy and Catherine Bernard.^[1] In 1697 she published Memoirs of the Countess of M***, a two-volume collection of false "memoirs" which was meant as a response to Charles de Saint-Évremond's 1696 book Memoirs of the Life of Count D*** before his Retirement, which had portrayed women as incapable of virtue and fickle.^[1] Murat's book was successful and was even translated into English.^[1]

She was one of the leaders of the fairy-tale vogue, along with Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy, Charlotte-Rose de Caumont La Force, Marie-Jeanne Lhéritier, and Charles Perrault. At Marie-Jeanne Lhéritier's insistence, she published three volumes of fairy tales between 1698 and 1699 - Fairy Tales (1698), New Fairy Tales (1698), and Sublime and Allegorical Stories (1699).^[1] In 1699 she also published the ghost story A Trip to the Country, and was inducted into the Ricovrati Academy of Padua. Another recognition she received was one of the Academy of Toulouse's Floral Games prizes for excerpts from a volume of her poetry, which is now lost.^[1]

In December 1699 she was involved in a scandal when a report was circulated accusing her of "shocking practices and beliefs" including lesbianism.^[1] She was estranged from her husband and disinherited by her mother, forced to take a hiatus from publishing, and eventually exiled to the Château de Loches in 1702; in 1701 her debauchery was considered confirmed by the fact that she was pregnant.^[1] She tried to escape from the Château de Loches in 1706 wearing men's clothing.^[1] She was then transferred to two other prisons before being brought back to the Château de Loches in 1707.^[1] In 1709 she obtained partial liberty from the Countess d'Argenton on the condition that she return to her aunt's home.^[1]

She wrote a 607-page journal, framed by a letter to her cousin Mademoiselle de Menou.^[1]

Her last work was The Sprites of Kernosy Castle, published in 1710.^[1]

Works[]

Fairy tales[]

• Fairy Tales (1697)
  • Le Parfait Amour (Perfect Love)
  • Anguillette
  • Jeune et Belle (Young and Handsome)
• New Fairy Tales (1698)
  • Le Palais de la vengeance (The Palace of Revenge)
  • Le Prince des feuilles (The Prince of Leaves)
  • Le Bonheur des moineaux (The Happiness of Sparrows), a verse tale
  • L'Heureuse Peine (The Fortunate Punishment)
• Le Voyage de campagne (1699)
  • Le Père et ses quatre fils (The Father and His Four Sons)
• Sublime and Allegorical Stories (1699)
  • Le Roi Porc (The Pig King)
  • L'Île de la magnificence (The Island of Magnificence)
  • Le Sauvage (The Savage)
  • Le Turbot (The Turbot)
• Journal pour Mademoiselle de Menou (1708)
  • L'Aigle au beau bec (The Eagle with the Handsome Beak)
  • La Fée princesse (The Princess Fairy)
  • Peine perdue
  • L'Origine du hérisson (The Origin of the Hedgehog)
  • An untitled unfinished tale^[2]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Heidmann, Ute. (2007). "Madame de Murat: Contes (review)". In: Marvels & Tales. 21: 280-283. 10.1353/mat.0.0010.
• Hofmann, Melissa A.. “The Fairy as Hero(ine) and Author: Representations of Female Power in Murat’s “Le Turbot”.” Marvels & Tales 28 (2014): 252 - 277.

External links[]

• Works by or about Henriette-Julie de Murat in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by or about Henriette-Julie de Murat at Internet Archive