Comtesse de Ségur
Sophie, Comtesse de Ségur (Sophie, Countess of Ségur, née Countess Sofiya Feodorovna Rostopchina; Saint Petersburg, 1 August 1799 - Paris, 9 February 1874) was a French writer of Russian birth who became famous as a writer of children's fiction. By 2010, 29 million copies of her books have been sold.
In her novels, she gives a detailed and accurate rendition of French society during the Second Empire. Several of her works feature the recurring theme of the corporal punishment of children.
Life
Her mother was Countess Catherine Protassova, and her father was Count Feodor Rostopchin. She spent her childhood in Voronovo near Moscow where her parents owned 45,000 ha of land and employed 4,000 serfs. Sophie received the education of children of the Russian aristocracy, which emphasized the learning of foreign languages, above all French. As an adult, she would master five languages. Sophie was a turbulent little girl and was often punished by her parents.
Sophie's father was lieutenant-general and, later, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia. In 1812, during the invasion of Russia by Napoleon's Grande Armée he was governor of Moscow. 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 for exile, going first to the Duchy of Warsaw, then to the German Confederation and the Italian 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 Eugène Henri Raymond, Count of Ségur (Fresnes, Seine-et-Marne, 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. Neglected by her husband, Ségur devoted herself entirely to the education of the couple's eight children.
The case of the Countess de Segur shows that a very late vocation as a writer can be particularly successful. She wrote her first novel at the age of 58. She began to devote herself to literature by writing down the stories she told her grandchildren and grouping them to form what is now called The New Fairy Tales. In 1866, she became a Franciscan tertiary, under the name of Sister Marie-Françoise, but continued to write. She died in Paris at 75 years of age, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.
Painting of Countess Sofiya Feodorovna Rostopchina by Salvatore Tonci.
Illustration from Les Petites Filles modèles.
Illustration from Les Malheurs de Sophie.
Illustration from Les Malheurs de Sophie.
Illustration from Le Général Dourakine.
Illustration from Mémoires d’un âne.
Works
She is best known today for her novel Les Malheurs de Sophie ("Sophie's Misfortunes", 1858), which is the sequel of Les Petites Filles modèles ("The Exemplary Little Girls", 1857). Another popular novel by her is Un bon petit diable ("A Good Little Devil", 1865).
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
- Les Malheurs de Sophie
- 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
Film adaptions
Several of the Comtesse de Ségur's novels were made into feature films and/or made-for-television movies, sometimes multiple times:
Cinema:
- Les Malheurs de Sophie (1946)
- Les Petites Filles modèles (1952)
- Les Petites Filles modèles (1971)
- Les Malheurs de Sophie (1980)
- Un bon petit diable (1983)
- La Fortune de Gaspard (1993)
Made-for-television movies:
- L'Auberge de l'Ange gardien (1962)
- Le Général Dourakine (1963)
- La Sœur de Gribouille (1964)
- Les Deux Nigauds (1966)
- Les Malheurs de Sophie (anime, 1998)
Other
A parody of Les Petites Filles modèles in the form of a 40-page spanking comic was made by Georges Lévis (Jean Sidobre) and published in 1982.
See also
External links
- Comtesse de Ségur on Wikimedia Commons
- Category:Sophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur on Wikimedia Commons
- Category:Les Malheurs de Sophie on Wikimedia Commons
- Category:Les Petites Filles modèles on Wikimedia Commons
|
This page may use content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Countess of Ségur. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. |