SOURCE: Bauschatz, Cathleen M. “‘Les Puissances de Vostre Empire’: Changing Power Relations in Marie de Gournay's Le Proumenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne from 1594 to 1626.” In Renaissance Women Writers: French Texts/American Contexts, edited by Anne R. Larsen and Colette H. Winn, pp. 189-208. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

In the essay below, Bauschatz examines de Gournay's concept of the various uses of power in Le Proumenoiur. The critic also demonstrates how de Gournay's revisions to subsequent editions of the work illustrate her artistic maturation.

In the dedicatory epistle to its first reader, Montaigne, before the original 1594 edition of her moralistic novel Le Proumenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne (Monsieur de Montaigne's Walk), Marie de Gournay stated that she hoped Montaigne would correct some of the errors in her book and also that in the process she might take pleasure in experiencing the power the essayist had over her...