Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin (1681 - 4 December 1749) was a French courtesan and author. Events March 4 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. ... December 4 is the 338th day (339th on leap years) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Events While in debtors prison, John Cleland writes Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure). ... A courtesan is a person paid and/or supported for the giving of social companionship and intimate liaisons to one or more partners. ... The word author has several meanings: The author of a book, story, article or the like, is the person who has written it (or is writing it). ...

Claudine was born in Grenoble, France where her father, Antoine Guérin, sieur de Tencin, was president of the parliament. Claudine was brought up at a convent near Grenoble and, at the wish of her parents, took the veil, but broke her vows and succeeded, in 1714, in gaining formal permission from the Pope Clement XI for her secularisation. She joined her sister Mme. de Ferriol in Paris, where she soon established a salon, frequented by wits and roués. Among her numerous lovers were the Chevalier Louis-Camus Destouches, the duc de Richelieu, and according to her biographer many other persons of distinction. View of Grenoble, 2002, with the snowy peaks of the Dauphiné Alps Location within France Grenoble (Occitan: Grasanòbol) is a city and commune in south-east France, situated at the foot of the Alps, at the confluence of the Drac into the Isère River. ... This article is about an abbey as a religious building. ... Frances Perkins wearing a veil after the death of president Roosevelt Veils are articles of clothing, worn almost exclusively by women, which cover some part of the head or face. ... Events August 1 - George, elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain. ... Clement XI, né Giovanni Francesco Albani (July 23, 1649 - March 19, 1721) was pope from 1700 to 1721. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

The last of her liaisons had a tragic ending. Charles-Joseph de la Fresnaye committed suicide in her house, and Mme. de Tencin spent some time in the Châtelet in consequence, but was soon liberated as the result of a declaration of her innocence by the Grand Consul. From this time she devoted herself to political intrigue, especially for the preferment of her brother the abbé Tencin, who became archbishop of Embrun and received a cardinal's hat. Eventually she formed a literary salon, which had among its habitués Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, Pierre de Marivaux, Alexis Piron and others. Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, also referred to as Bernard le Bouyer de Fontenelle (February 11, 1657 _ January 9, 1757) was a French author. ... Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (January 18, 1689 – February 10, 1755) was a French political thinker who lived during the Enlightenment and is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in... Charles-Irénée Castel, abbé de Saint-Pierre (February 18, 1658 _ April 29, 1743), French writer, was born at the château de Saint-Pierre-Église near Cherbourg. ... Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (February 4, 1688 - February 12, 1763), French novelist and dramatist, was born at Paris. ... Alexis Piron (July 9, 1689 - January 21, 1773), was a French epigrammatist and dramatist. ...

Hers was the first of the Parisian literary salons to which distinguished foreigners were admitted, and among her English guests were Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke and Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. By the good sense with which she conducted what she called her menagerie, she almost succeeded in effacing the record of her early disgrace. Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678 - December 12, 1751) was an English statesman and writer. ... Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (22 September 1694 - 24 March 1773) was a British statesman and man of letters. ...

She was a novelist of considerable merit. Her novels have been highly praised for their simplicity and charm, the last qualities the circumstances of the writer's life would lead one to expect in her work. The best of them is Mémoires du comte de Comminges (1735), which appeared, as did the other two, under the name of her nephews, MM. d'Argental and Pont de Veyle, the real authorship being carefully concealed.

Her works, with those of Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette, were edited by Etienne and Jay (Paris, 1825); her novels were reprinted, with introductory matter by Lescure, in 1885; and her correspondence in the Lettres de Mmes. de Villars, de La Fayette et de Tencin (Paris, 1805-1832). Madame de La Fayette (baptized March 18, 1634 - May 25, 1693) was a French writer, the alleged author of La Princesse de Clèves, Frances first historical novel and often taken to be one of the earliest European novels of its day. ... 1825 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...