ABSTRACT
The texts left by the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome are readily available either in print or on the internet. Born the daughter of a noble family from Burgundy, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal was raised and educated mostly by her mother’s brother, since both her parents and grandparents died when she was still young, leaving her the heiress of her maternal family’s considerable possessions. Of course, in the seventeenth century public transport in the modern sense did not exist. But respectable persons – certainly women – did not walk. Obviously, writing implies a reader, or, to put it otherwise, some kind of companionship. Inevitably, this creates situations wherein, wittingly or unwittingly, “the other” is burdened with all kinds of emotions.
