Writers in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century France inspired some of our most iconic stories of “rags-to-riches” transformations. Cinderella is one famous example in which a young woman, made to serve as her stepmother and stepsisters’ chambermaid, becomes the consort for a prince. Authors reserved such auspicious fates only for ideal young women, whose virtue is tested practically at every turn. Presumably, the pleasure in such tales was the reassurance that the bride-to-be had really always belonged to the nobility in the first place, rather than the exhilaration of a woman's boundary crossing. While class instability likely gave rise to this narrative form, social critics and authors hoped that such fantasies would not encourage wily servants or manipulative flirts to seek similar destinies.

The early modern nobility had every reason to be anxious about the crumbling boundaries protecting their class and its privileges. Noble lords had once considered themselves rulers of their own fiefdoms, but their independence began to slip from their grasp as sixteenth- and seventeenth-century monarchs began consolidating their authority. After the mid-century civil war known as the Fronde, Louis XIV exiled some of his rebellious subjects to their country estates and required others to live under his close surveillance at court. To keep up appearances, aristocrats drained their inherited wealth on the latest fashions, while also wasting it away and relieving their boredom at the king's gambling tables. At least one contemporary, the Duke de Saint-Simon, felt that the king encouraged such reckless spending to keep his nobility in vulnerable submission.

At the same time, a rival nobility had developed, the noblesse de robe (nobility of the robe). Unlike the nobility of the sword (noblesse d’épée) who inherited their status, robed nobles essentially paid for it by purchasing a position in a governmental agency. While this position could be hereditary, the noble title was attached to the job and not the person. With their long-standing rank at stake, the old nobility began to come up with other means to distinguish between their social group and these new social climbers. The aristocracy attempted, for instance, to set themselves apart with refined language and manners that constantly shifted to maintain exclusivity. Nevertheless, despite the nobility's best efforts, social ranks were becoming indistinguishable.