Madeleine: One of Love's Jansenists

Paris, 1660. In the glittering salons of the Précieuses, where poets debate the nature of love and philosophers court the famous Mlle de Scudéry, young Madeleine Troqueville faces an impossible choice. She possesses both a sharp mind and a tender heart, but the world demands she sacrifice one for the other. As she moves through literary circles that prize wit above all else, Madeleine finds herself drawn to Jansenism - the austere religious movement that demands the death of earthly desire in favor of divine purity. Hope Mirrlees, better known for her fantasy masterpiece Lud-in-the-Mist, crafted this debut as a meditation on the particular anguish of an intelligent woman caught between the sophisticated pleasures of romantic love and the demanding rectitude of religious conviction. Set among the real historical figures of 17th century Parisian literary life, the novel explores what it costs to be both passionate and principled in a world that permits no middle ground.