The storytelling soon devolves into a verbal battle between the sexes, as the tales concern lovers, romantic conquests, and women's virtue -- objects of pride and power. The Heptameron is a book to delight, offend, and educate twentieth-century readers. Highly recommended.
Author Biography
Marguerite de Navarre (1492 - 1549), also known as Marguerite of Angoul'me and Margaret of Navarre, was the princess of France, Queen of Navarre and Duchess of Alenon and Berry. She was married to Henry II of Navarre. Her brother became King of France, as Francis I and the two siblings were responsible for the celebrated intellectual and cultural court and salons of their day in France. Marguerite is the ancestress of the Bourbon kings of France, being the mother of Jeanne d'Albret, whose son, Henry of Navarre, succeeded as Henry IV of France, the first Bourbon king. As an author and a patron of humanists and reformers, she was an outstanding figure of the French Renaissance. Samuel Putnam called her "The First Modern Woman."
