Racine will go out of style like coffee.

In this wry comparison, Sévigné treats literary taste as a matter of fashion rather than permanent judgment. By likening Racine’s tragedies—then a dominant presence in French theater—to coffee, a consumable craze that can cool into yesterday’s habit, she suggests that even the most celebrated art is vulnerable to changing social appetites. The remark also reflects the salon culture in which reputations were made and unmade through conversation, wit, and novelty. Read this way, the line is less a settled verdict on Racine than a skeptical observation about the volatility of public enthusiasm and the tendency of audiences to tire of what they once adored.