Countess of Ségur | |
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 The Countess of Ségur | |
| Born | Sofiya Feodorovna Rostopchina (1799-08-01)August 1, 1799 |
| Died | February 9, 1874(1874-02-09) (aged 74) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Years active | 1856 to 1872 |
| French andFrancophone literature |
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Sophie Rostopchine,Countess of Ségur, bornSofiya Feodorovna Rostopchina (Russian:Софья Фёдоровна Ростопчина; 1 August 1799 inSaint Petersburg – 8 February 1874 inParis), was a French writer ofRussian birth and origin. She is best known today for her novelLes Malheurs de Sophie (Sophie's misfortunes),intended for children.
Her fatherCount Fyodor Rostopchin was lieutenant-general and, later, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia. In 1812, he was governor of Moscow during theinvasion of theGrande Armée underNapoleon I of France. While facts concerning the origin of thegreat 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 leftImperial Russia for exile, going first to theDuchy of Warsaw, then to theGerman Confederation and theItalian peninsula and finally in 1817 toFrance under the Bourbon Restoration. In France, the father established asalon, and his wife and daughter converted toRoman Catholicism from Russian Orthodoxy.
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 deMéry-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 aPeer of France in 1830), and his infrequent conjugal visits to their château des Nouettes (nearL'Aigle, Orne) produced eight children, includingNathalie de Ségur and the father of the historianPierre 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.
The novels of the Countess of Ségur were published from 1857 to 1872 in the "Bibliothèque rose illustrée" by the publishing houseHachette. They were collected together in 1990 under the titleŒuvres de la comtesse de Ségur in the collection "Bouquins" (publisher: Robert Laffont).
Media related toSophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur at Wikimedia Commons
