Tag Archives: Renee Winegarten

tencin: high wire act between rationalism and passion

“My menagerie,” Alexandrine Tencin called her salon; her guests were “mes betes.” Her Tuesdays she filled with good talk, high spirits, and low comedy involving chamber pots and such. Her leisure she filled with literature, the recourse of the bored. … Continue reading

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liberation of Mme de tencin

From convent to court, from bank to boudoir, she was always prone to argue… In France during the ancien regime the Tencin family of Grenoble rose by industry mixed with avarice from nothingness to wealth, provincial distinction, and a tiny … Continue reading

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