Marie Françoise Sophie Gay
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Marie Françoise Sophie Gay (born Nichault de la Valette; 1 July 1776 – 2 March 1852) was a French author who was born in Paris.


Biography

Marie Françoise Sophie Nichault de la Vallette was the child of Francesca Peretti, an Italian woman and of Auguste Antoine Nichault de la Vallette, an entrepreneur who worked for
Louis XVIII of France Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 â€“ 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 ...
. Gay was married in 1794 to Gaspard Liottier (or Gaspar Liottier). She divorced in 1799 to marry another, Jean Sigismond Gay (1768–1822), the mayor of Lupigny, originally from
Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; ; ), known locally and simply as Aix, is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern French Departments of France, department of Savoie.French First Empire The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...
. He was the contrôleur-général for the
Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...
. She published her first written work in 1802, defending the art of the novel. '' Delphine'' by
Germaine de Staël Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein (; ; 22 April 176614 July 1817), commonly known as Madame de Staël ( ; ), was a prominent philosopher, woman of letters, and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles. She was ...
, wrote an
open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
to the ''
Journal de Paris The (1777–1840) was the first daily French newspaper.(7 October 2014)The first French daily: Journal de Paris History of JournalismAndrews, ElizabethBetween Auteurs and Abonnés: Reading the Journal de Paris, 1787–1789 ''Journal of the Weste ...
''. That year her first published work, the novel ''Laure d’Estell'', was anonymously published, on the advice of her publisher Sir
Stanislas de Boufflers Stanislas Jean, chevalier de Boufflers (31 May 1738, Nancy, France, Nancy – 18 January 1815) was a French Politician, statesman and writer. Biography He was born near Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, the son of Louis François, marquis de Boufflers. ...
and
Joseph-Alexandre Pierre de Ségur, Viscount of Ségur Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur (1756–1805), was a French military officer, poet, songwriter and playwright. Early life and career Joseph-Alexandre Pierre de Ségur was born in Paris as the son of Maréchal Philippe Henri, Marquis ...
.


Legacy

Gay was the mother of the writer
Delphine de Girardin Delphine de Girardin (24 January 1804 – 29 June 1855), pen name ''Vicomte Delaunay'', was a French writer. Life de Girardin was born in Aachen, and christened Delphine Gay. Her mother, the well-known Madame Sophie Gay, brought her up in the mi ...
, and her son-in-law married the chanteuse
Sophie Gail Edmee Sophie Gail née Garre (28 August 1775 – 24 July 1819) was a renowned French singer and composer, famous for writing romances (a French song genre) and ''opéra comique''. Life Sophie Garre was born in Paris in the parish of Saint S ...
. In 1818 she wrote the
libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...
for the
opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...
by Regnard, which
Sophie Gail Edmee Sophie Gail née Garre (28 August 1775 – 24 July 1819) was a renowned French singer and composer, famous for writing romances (a French song genre) and ''opéra comique''. Life Sophie Garre was born in Paris in the parish of Saint S ...
set to music. In 1821, she was working on by Alexandre Duval, and a comic opera entitled ''le Maitre de Chapelle'' ("Master of the House", not to be confused with ''
Master of the House ''Master of the House'' (, literally ''Thou Shalt Honour Thy Wife'') is a 1925 Danish silent film, silent drama film directed and written by acclaimed filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film marked the debut of Karin Nellemose, and it is regarde ...
'' from
Les Misérables (musical) ''Les Misérables'' ( , ), colloquially known as ''Les Mis'' or ''Les Miz'' ( ), is a sung-through musical theatre, musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Schönberg and Boublil ...
). In the meantime, Gay was also writing many others comedies and dramas. The comedy ("The widow of the tanner"), was a huge success at the Castellane, but the ''Duchesse de Châteauroux'' bombed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon. She also wrote several "novel novels", , as
penny dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular Serial (literature), serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typical ...
s, for ''
La Presse is a French-language online newspaper published daily in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1884, it is now owned by an independent nonprofit trust. ' was formerly a broadsheet daily, considered a newspaper of record in Canada. Its Sunday edi ...
''. She also published numerous
romantic song Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
s, accompanied on the piano, for which she wrote both the words and music: ''Maris'' is perhaps a best example, although she would also write in the elegiac style. After being widowed, between 1826 and 1827, she took a grand tour to Italy with son. In the later years of her life, Gay lived at Versailles during the "season". One of her daughters became the Countess O'Donnell, the other, was more famously known by the name of
Delphine de Girardin Delphine de Girardin (24 January 1804 – 29 June 1855), pen name ''Vicomte Delaunay'', was a French writer. Life de Girardin was born in Aachen, and christened Delphine Gay. Her mother, the well-known Madame Sophie Gay, brought her up in the mi ...
, the wife of
Émile de Girardin Émile de Girardin (; 22 June 180227 April 1881) was a French journalist, publisher and politician. He was the most successful and flamboyant French journalist of the era, presenting himself as a promoter of mass education through mass journalism ...
.


Works

* ''Laure d’Estell'', par Mme ***; Paris, 1802, 3 vol. in-12; * ''Léonie de Montbreuse'', Paris, 1813 et 1823, 2 vol. in-12; La seconde édition n’est pas anonyme. * ''Anatole'', Paris, 1815 et 1822, 2 vol. in-12; * ''Les Malheurs d’un Amant heureux, ouvrage traduit de l’anglais, par M***, auteur de plusieurs ouvrages connus; Paris, 1818; reproduit sous le titre : ''les Malheurs d’un Amant heureux, ou mémoires d’un aide-de-camp de Napoléon écrits par son valet de chambre'', Paris, 1823, 3 vol. in-8°;'' * ''Le Marquis de Pomenars'', comédie en un acte et en prose, Paris, Ladvocat, 1820, in-8°; * ''Une Aventure du chevalier de Grammont'', comédie en trois actes et en vers, Paris, 1822, in-8°; * ''Marie, ou la pauvre fille'', drame en trois actes et en prose, Paris, 1824, in-8°; * ''Théobald, épisode de la guerre de Russie'', Paris, 1828, 4 vol. in-12; * ''Le Moqueur amoureux'', Paris, 1830, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Un Mariage sous l’empire'', Paris, 1832, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Scènes du jeune âge'', Paris, 1833, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''la Physiologie du Ridicule'', Paris, 1833, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Souvenirs d’une vieille femme'', Paris, Michel Lévy frères, 1834, in-8°: extrait des ''Mémoires'' de l’auteur; * ''La Duchesse de Châteauroux'', Paris, 1834 et 1839, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Le Chevalier de Canolle'', opéra comique en trois actes, music by Hippolyte-Honoré-Joseph Court de Fontmichel; Paris, 1836, in-8°; * ''la Comtesse d’Egmont'', Paris, 1836, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Les Salons célèbres'', Paris, Dumont, 1837, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Marie de Mancini'', Paris, 1840, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Marie-Louise d’Orléans'', Paris, 1842, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''la Duchesse de Chateauroux'', drame en quatre actes, joué sur le second Théâtre-Français, le 25; Paris, 1844, grand in-8°; * ''Ellénore'', Paris, 1844–1846, 4 vol. in-8°; * ''Le joui Frère'', Paris, 1845, 3 vol. in 8"; * ''Le Comte de Guiche'', Paris, 1845, 3 vol. in-8°; * ''Le Mari confident'', Paris, 1849, 2 vol. in-8°; * ''Société du Travail à domicile'', discours suivi d’une pétition en vers en faveur de cette œuvre, Versailles, 1849, in-8°. * ''Œuvres complètes de Sophie Gay'', Paris, M. Lévy, 1864–1885


Autobiography

For an account of her daughter,
Delphine Gay Delphine de Girardin (24 January 1804 – 29 June 1855), pen name ''Vicomte Delaunay'', was a French writer. Life de Girardin was born in Aachen, and christened Delphine Gay. Her mother, the well-known Madame Sophie Gay, brought her up in the mi ...
, her mother's work of 1834, ''Souvenirs d'une vieille femme'' ("memoirs from an old woman. See also
Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
's ''Portraits contemporains'' and
Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he se ...
's, '' Causeries du lundi'' (Monday's chats, essentially). Her niece was the writer
Hortense Allart Hortense Allart de Méritens (; pseudonym Prudence de Saman L'Esbatx; 7 September 1801 – 28 February 1879) was an Italian-French Feminism, feminist writer and essayist. Her novels, based on her adventures, did not have much success, except for ...
.


Sources

* Paul Lafond, ''L’Aube romantique : Jules de Rességuier et ses amis, Chateaubriand – Émile Deschamps – Sophie Gay – Madame de Girardin – Victor Hugo – Lamartine – H.T. de Latouche – Sainte-Beuve – A. Soumet – Eugène Sue – Alfred de Vigny et autres'', Paris, Mercure de France, 1910 * Henri Malo, ''Une muse et sa mère : Delphine Gay de Girardin'', Paris, Émile-Paul Frères, 1924 * Jules Manecy, ''Une famille de Savoie : celle de Delphine Gay'', Aix-les-Bains, E. Gérente, 1904 * Jules Marsan, ''La Muse française, 1823–1824'', Paris, É. Cornély et Cie, 1907–1909


See also


Sources

*
Ferdinand Hoefer Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer (German: ''Ferdinand Höfer'', 21 April 1811, Döschnitz – 4 May 1878) was a German-French physician and lexicographer. He is now known for his many works on the history of science. Selected works *''Éléme ...
, ''Nouvelle Biographie générale'', t. 19, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1857, pp. 751–3. * 7 S : Fonds Gay, archives municipales d'Aix-les-Bains, Savoie


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Sophie 19th-century French writers French opera librettists 1776 births 1852 deaths Writers from Paris French women novelists 19th-century French women writers French salon-holders