(LA ROCHE-GUILHEN, Anne de) The History of Female Favourites. Of Mary de Padilla, under Peter the Cruel, King of Castile; Livia, under the Emperor Augustus; Julia Farnesa, under Pope Alexander the Sixth; Agnes Soreau, under Charles VII, King of France; and Nantilda, under Dagobert, King of France. Printed for C. Parker, the Upper End of New Bond-Street. 1772
[4], 324pp. 8vo. Sl. worming to inner boards, e.ps & final few leaves, not affecting text. Full contemp. calf, raised bands; joints sl. cracked, lacking label. Armorial bookplate of the Marquess of Headfort.
¶ESTC T60642. Anne de La Roche-Guilhen was baptized in Rouen in 1644, and lived and wrote for long periods in London, where she died in 1707. She produced mainly historical prose, often fictionalized or moralized, as well as historical novels and translations. After 1686 her works displayed a sharp Huguenot sensibility, and were published in Amsterdam, the information centre of the pre-Enlightenment. The circulation of La Roche-Guilhen's work - written in London, printed in Holland, smuggled into France and elsewhere - shows her benefiting from a widespread publishing network, including clandestine booksellers. Her best-seller was the Histoire des Favorites (1697); written in French, printed first in Amsterdam and then reprinted at least eight times over twenty years, with translations into English, Dutch, and Russian. It was seized by French authorities, republished under false imprints, and integrated into quasi-pornographic editions. Originally a series of ten brief tales of famous courtesans in history (later editions would add others), Favourites uses these untold stories of women's influence on powerful rulers to suggest how the politics of nation-states are linked to local institutions regulating women's circulation (convents, charitable systems, and marriage). (Juliette Cherbuliez, writing for the Société Internationale pour l'Etude des Femmes de l'Ancien Régime.)