The Heptameron is a collection of short stories written in French by Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), published posthumously in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio Highly recommended.
Marguerite de Navarre (1492 - 1549), also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was the princess of France, Queen of Navarre and Duchess of Alençon 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".
