Comtesse de Murat

• BNF Paris: Henriette-Julie de Castelnau comtesse de Murat (1670-1716)
• Book online: Mémoires de Madame la comtesse D*** avant sa retraite. Servant de réponse aux Mémoires de Mt. St. Êvremont,
• Château de la Buzardière (Place of Death) - French Ministère de la Culture
• Voir Wikipedia...
• Notice by Geneviève Patard, 2007.(see BNF Paris:Geneviève Clermidy-Patard)

Daughter of Michel de Castelnau, descendant of the high aristocracy of the county of Bigorre, and Louise-Marie Foucault, originally from Limousin, Henriette-Julie, born around 1668, came from families recognized for their glorious military past, since her two great -fathers, Jacques de Castelnau and Louis Foucault de Saint-Germain, are marshals of France. His childhood was marked by the death of his father, governor of Brest, killed on December 2, 1672, at the head of his regiment, near Utrecht in Holland. The family returns to Paris, contrary to what the legend of Breton youth has long believed. In 1691, she married Nicolas de Murat, Count of Gilbertez and colonel of an infantry regiment. In 1696, when she was not yet thirty years old, she wrote her Memoirs. While recounting her life, she defends women, in order to respond to a recently published text which she considers harmful to the image of the female sex, the Memoirs of the life of Count D* before his retirement written by Saint-Evremont. She thus hopes to convince the world “that very often, there is much more misfortune than disorder in the conduct of women”. She then frequented Madame de Lambert's salon and actively participated in the fashion for literary fairy tales, with Contes de fées and Les Nouveaux Contes des Fées (1698), followed by Histoires sublimes et allegoriques (1699). The latter are introduced by an epistle to the “modern Fairies” whom the storyteller calls to distinguish themselves from the “old ones”, whose occupations were “low and childish”. She also inserts a tale in the Country Trip (1699), an account of the conversations of a group of aristocrats in a rural setting. The same year, she was elected to the Academy of Ricovrati of Padua with, among others, Mlles Chéron, de La Force, Deshoulières and Bernard, thus joining Mlle de Scudéry, Mme d'Aulnoy and Miss Lheureux. However, rumors of scandals continue to grow about him. This is evidenced by the reports of police lieutenant René d'Argenson, from September 29, 1698. Various "disorders" are blamed on him, in particular his homosexual tendencies. Warned several times, she was finally arrested on April 19, 1702 and taken to the castle of Loches. After a failed escape on March 14, 1706, she was transferred to the Château de Saumur, under a more severe regime, then stayed at the Château d'Angers in 1707, before being brought back to Loches the same year. This time it is a simple exile in the city, where she frequents good society. This period of her life is better known thanks to the daily diary sent in the form of letters to her cousin, Mlle de Menou, between April 14, 1708 and March 5, 1709. Mme de Murat finally managed to attract the attention of Philippe d' Orléans, through her mistress, the Countess d'Argenton, for whom she wrote a poem. On May 15, 1709, she then obtained semi-liberty, being required to stay with an aunt in Limousin. She also published Les Lutins du château de Kernosy, a historical short story published in 1710. On the death of Louis XIV, the Regent authorized her to return to Paris, but she retired to Maine, to the Château de la Buzardière. Weakened by illness, she died there the following year, on September 29, 1716.

By appropriating generic forms with blurred boundaries, whether memoirs, literary tales or short stories, Madame de Murat demonstrates an astonishing freedom of writing. Not hesitating to vary her sources of inspiration according to her readings, she renews motifs borrowed from the Italian Straparole or the Abbot of Villars and his Count de Gabalis in order to express her concerns, in a work tinged with preciousness, where playful dreams of gallant scenarios and denunciation of the social enslavement of women mingle.

Until their reissue in the Cabinet des Fées (1785), Madame de Murat's first tales enjoyed a certain success in the 18th century. An edition of all of his works, including the compilation of his handwritten correspondence, announced in the Bibliothèque Universelle des Nouvelles (1775), never saw the light of day. Subsequently, his character arouses the interest of Gay and Lesbian Studies. But it is within the framework of the renewal of criticism on the literary fairy tale at the end of the Grand Siècle, and, in particular, through the editorial enterprise of the Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées, that the work by Mme de Murat benefits from renewed attention.