Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter, Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné.

[1] Her father was killed during the English attack on the Isle of Rhé in July 1627, which began the Anglo-French War of 1627-1629.

The marriage took place on 4 August 1644, and the couple went almost immediately to the Sévigné manor house of Les Rochers, near Vitré (which she was to immortalize in her letters).

[2] Henri was a serial philanderer who spent money recklessly, but through her uncle's careful financial oversight Marie was able to keep much of her fortune separate.

In Paris, she frequented salons, especially that of Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances to King Louis XIV.

In the arrangements for this marriage, Mme de Sévigné divided all her fortune among her children and reserved for herself only part of the life interest.

In the same year, Mme de Sévigné attended the Saint-Cyr performance of Racine's Esther, and some of her most amusing descriptions of court ceremonies and experiences date from this time.

During an illness of her daughter in 1696, Mme de Sévigné caught a "fever" (possibly influenza or pneumonia), and died on 17 April at Grignan, and was buried there.

The letters were selected according to Mme de Simiane's instructions: she rejected those that dealt too closely with family matters, or those that seemed poorly written.

However, in 1873, some early manuscript copies of the letters, directly based on Mme de Sévigné's originals, were found in an antique shop.

Mme de Sévigné's letters play an important role in the novel In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust where they figure as the favorite reading of the narrator's grandmother, and, following her death, his mother.