A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Fontaines, Marie Louise Charlotte Countess de
FONTAINES, MARIE LOUISE CHARLOTTE COUNTESS DE,
Was the daughter of the Marquis de Giorg, Governor of Metz. Mademoiselle de Giorg married the Count de Fontaines, by whom she had a son and a daughter. She died in 1730.
Madame de Fontaines acquired considerable reputation by her novels, which are of the school of Madame de Fayette, to whom she is inferior in sensibility, and in the power of developing character; the French critics pronounce her diction to be purer; a merit which resulted from the epoch when she wrote; the language being at that time more settled than it was when "The Princess of Cleves" was composed. Voltaire, who was on terms of intimate friendship with Madame Fontaines, wrote some verses in her praise, in which he equals her style to that of Fenelon. This is a very exaggerated compliment. More just and more acceptable it would have been to confess that the plot of his fine tragedy, "Tancrède," is taken from one of her novels—"The Countess of Savoy." La Harpe, in his analysis of "Tancrède," indicates its source. In this play, the great beauty of the poetry and the very interesting and powerful evolvement of the characters evince so superior a genius to the mere formation of the story, that the poet might have yielded up to the lady what was due to to without a single leaf falling from his laurel. Bat, man-like, he did not choose to acknowledge that he had been helped by a woman, while availing himself of the advantage.