Suzanne de Nervèze
Suzanne de Nervèze was a 17th‑century French writer associated with the préciosité movement. She used the pen names Némésis and Nérésie. Her exact birth date is unknown, but she is thought to have been born around 1600 and died in 1666. Little is known about her family. She may have had a brother, Antoine de Nervèze, who was also a writer and perhaps her uncle, and Guillaume-Bernard de Nervèze, Antoine’s elder brother. If they were related, they likely came from the Languedoc in southern France. She lived in Paris, but her address is not recorded. She spoke of poverty despite pensions from Cardinal Mazarin and said she was not a cultivated woman, which she used to explain why she left the Court.
Nervèze wrote many letters, mainly during the Fronde (1648–1653) when she was favored by Mazarin. She was not widely known in her lifetime and was sometimes mocked by other writers. Today only a few studies mention her. She produced about thirty works on different subjects. Her first work, a novel called La Nouvelle Armide, appeared in 1644 and was the only fictional work she produced during her active years (roughly 1636–1662). Most of her writings deal with the Fronde and Christian religion, and in many letters she pleads for peace because the civil war was hard on Paris.
One of her notable works is Apologie en faveur des femmes (1642), which discusses the nature and qualities of women. Her writings are short, usually 10–50 pages, and she dedicated them to influential people such as Anne d’Autriche, the Princess Palatine, the Duke of Orléans, and Louis XIV. The letters show that she supported the monarchy and often flattered her recipients. This habit drew criticism from contemporaries; for example, Hubert Carrier refers to her in his work Les Muses guerrières, which covers the Mazarinades and literary life in the Fronde era.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:43 (CET).