Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701) was the most popular novelist in her time, read in French in volume installments all over Europe and translated into English, German, Italian, and even Arabic. But she was also a charismatic figure in French salon culture, a woman who supported herself through her writing and defended women’s education. She was the first woman to be honored by the French Academy, and she earned a pension from Louis XIV for her writing.

Karen Newman is the University Professor and professor of comparative literature and English at Brown University. She is the author of three books, including Fashioning Femininity and English Renaissance Drama, published by the University of Chicago Press, and coeditor of Time and the Literary: Essays from the English Institute.