Sophie Rostopchine, Countess of Ségur, born Sofiya Feodorovna Rostopchina (; 1 August 1799 in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

– 8 February 1874 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

), was a French writer of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

birth and origin. She is best known today for her novel ''

Les Malheurs de Sophie ''The Misfortunes of Sophie'' (French: ''Les Malheurs de Sophie'') is a 1946 French comedy drama film directed by Jacqueline Audry and starring Madeleine Rousset, Marguerite Moreno and Michel Auclair.Palmer & Michael p.69 The film is based on th ...

'' (Sophie's misfortunes), intended for children.

Life

Her father Count Fyodor Rostopchin was lieutenant-general and, later, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia. In 1812, he was governor of Moscow during the

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...

of the

Grande Armée The (; ) was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1808 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empi ...

under

Napoleon I of France Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. 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 have organized (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 Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

for exile, going first to the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

, then to the

German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...

and the Italian peninsula and finally in 1817 to France under the Bourbon Restoration. In France, the father established a

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

, and his wife and daughter converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

from

Russian Orthodoxy The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The primate of the ROC is the patriarch of Moscow and all Rus ...

. It was in her father's salon that Sophie Rostopchine met Eugène Henri Raymond, Count of Ségur ( Fresnes, Seine-et-Marne on 12 February 1798 – Château de Méry-sur-Oise 15 July 1869), whom she married on 13/14 July 1819. The marriage was largely an unhappy one: her husband was flighty, distant and poor (until being made a

Peer of France The Peerage of France () was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 during the Middle Ages. The prestigious title and position of Peer of France () was held by the greatest, highest-ranking members of the Fr ...

in 1830), and his infrequent conjugal visits to their château des Nouettes (near

L'Aigle L'Aigle is a commune in the Orne department in Normandy in northwestern France. Before 1961, the commune was known as ''Laigle''. According to Orderic Vitalis, the nest of an eagle (''aigle'' in French) was discovered during the construction ...

, Orne) produced eight children, including Nathalie de Ségur and the father of the historian Pierre de Ségur (Eugène de Ségur is said to have called his wife "la mère Gigogne", or "Mother Gigogne" in reference to a theatre character of 1602, an enormous woman out of whose skirts a crowd of children appeared). The Comtesse de Ségur wrote her first novel at the age of 58.

Novels

The novels of the Countess of 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'' * ''

'' * ''Diloy le chemineau'' * '' 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'' * ''Après la pluie, le beau temps'' * ''Les Vacances'' * ''L'auberge de l'Ange Gardien'' * ''Le général Dourakine''

References

External links

* * * * *
Life and works of the comtesse de Ségur (in French)

Link label
Sophie Heywood, Catholicism and Children's Literature: the comtesse de Ségur (1799–1874), Manchester University Press, 2011 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Segur, Countess of 1799 births 1874 deaths Converts to Roman Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy Writers from Saint Petersburg Counts of Ségur Countesses of the Russian Empire French countesses Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France French children's writers French people of Russian descent French Roman Catholic writers Russian Roman Catholics Former Russian Orthodox Christians French women children's writers Russian women children's writers 19th-century French women writers 19th-century women writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century novelists from the Russian Empire 19th-century French novelists Russian women novelists French women novelists People from the Russian Empire of Tatar descent