Madame d'Aulnoy

Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)

Ed. by Allison Stedman, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.03: French Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century: Classical and Baroque, 1600-1700.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Heather Kirk (University of Western Ontario), Kathrina LaPorta (New York University), Polly Mangerson (DePaul University), Julia Prest (University of St Andrews), Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born c. 1650
Died 1705
Activity 1690-1703

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Genres and Modes

Fairy Tale

Activities

Primary

Children's/Young Adult writer
Story-writer

Other

Letter-writer/ Diarist
Travel writer

Resources

Introduction

At the turn of the eighteenth-century Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy was one of the most popular and influential authors in western Europe; her novels, memoirs, travel logs, short stories, historical documentaries, devotional meditations and fairy tales continued to be published regularly throughout France, England, Spain, Germany and Bohemia long after her death in 1705. Today, however, d’Aulnoy is most remembered for her fairy tales, and particularly for “Lîle de la félicité” [“The Island of Happiness”], the first published fairy tale of the French tradition (1690), which sparked a vogue of fairy-tale composition between 1690 and 1715.

Early Life

Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, comtesse d’Aulnoy was born in 1650 or 1651 in Barneville-La-Bertrand, Normandy. Her father, Nicolas-Claude Le Jumel, seigneur de Barneville and Pennedepie passed away when Marie-Catherine was young. Her mother, Judith-Angélique Le Coustelier de...

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1239 words

Citation: Stedman, Allison. "Madame d'Aulnoy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 January 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12711, accessed 14 December 2025.]

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