- Sophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur
Sophie Feodorovna Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur (
August 1 ,1799 ,Saint Petersburg -February 9 ,1874 ,Paris ) was a French writer ofRussia n birth. She is most well-known today for her novel "Les Malheurs de Sophie" ("Sophie's Misfortunes").Her family was originally from
Mongolia . Her father Feodor Vassilievitch Rostopchine was lieutenant-general and, later, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia. In 1812, he was governor ofMoscow during the invasion of theGrande Armée underNapoleon I of France . While facts concerning the origin of the great fire of Moscow are disputed by historians, Sophie Rostopchine's father has been said by some to haveorganized (despite opposition from the wealthy property-owners in the city) the great fire which forced Napoleon to make a disastrous retreat.In 1814 the Rostopchine family left
Imperial Russia for exile, going first to theDuchy of Warsaw , then to theGerman Confederation and theItalian peninsula and finally in 1817 to France under the Bourbon Restoration. In France, the father established a salon, and his wife and daughter converted to Roman Catholicism.It was in her father's salon that Sophie Rostopchine met Comte Eugène de
Ségur , whom she married onJuly 14 ,1819 . The marriage was largely an unhappy one: her husband was flighty, distant and poor (until being made a Peer of France in 1830), and his infrequent conjugal visits to their château des Nouettes (nearL'Aigle ,Orne ) produced eight children (Eugène de Ségur is said to have called his wife "la mère Gigogne", or "Mother Gigogne" in reference to wooden Russian dolls that nest one inside the other).The Comtesse de Ségur wrote her first novel at the age of 58.
Novels
The novels of the Comtesse de Ségur were published from 1857 to 1872 in the "Bibliothèque rose illustrée" by the publishing house Hachette. They were collected together in 1990 under the title "Œuvres de la comtesse de Ségur" in the collection "Bouquins" (publisher: Robert Laffont).
* "Un bon petit diable"
* "Les Malheurs de Sophie"
* "Diloy le chemineau"
* "Les Mémoires d'un âne"
* "Jean qui grogne et Jean qui rit"
* "Le Mauvais Génie"
* "François le bossu"
* "Les Caprices de Gizelle"
* "Pauvre Blaise"
* "La Fortune de Gaspard"
* "Quel amour d'enfant !"
* "Les Petites Filles modèles"
* "La sœur de Gribouille"
* "Blondine"External links
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* [http://membres.lycos.fr/rcneuf/segur.htm Life and works of the comtesse de Ségur (in French)]
*She prefers to be called sonia and in her spare time collects stamps ....coz thats jus what she likes!in general shes a very holy child and attends the holy church in frodsham every day....she loves living it large with franny but prefers to sit by herself and sing old folk song to her pet giraffe!
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