Sophie Gay
| Sophie Gay | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1 July 1776 |
| Died | 2 March 1852 (aged 75) |
| Spouse(s) | Jean-Baptiste Isabey |
Marie Françoise Sophie Gay (born Nichault de la Valette in Paris, 1 July 1776 – 2 March 1852 was a French author, born in Paris.
Gay was the child on the father's side of Auguste Antoine Nichault de La Vallette, an entrepreneur who worked for Louis XVIII of France. On her mother's side, she was born of Francesca Peretti, an Italian woman.
She 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 and with a close association to the French treasury, under the French First Empire. He was the contrôleur-général for the Ruhr.
This marriage, some may say a marriage of convenience, allowed both Sophie and her husband to mix in high society. They spent most of their lives around those of the upper class in Aix-la-Chapelle, with those who were trying to establish the town of Spa, Belgium, and particularly with Pauline Bonaparte, Her French: salon, women of the chattering classes, was often supplemented by artists, musicians, writers and drawers, and painters, who loved her for her wit, beauty, and largesse.
She published her first written work in 1802, defending the art of the novel. Delphine by Germaine de Staël, wrote an open letter to the Journal de Paris which is still on record.
The same year, her first novel, her first published work, Laure d’Estell, was anonymously published, on the advice of her publisher Sir Stanislas de Boufflers and Joseph-Alexandre Pierre de Ségur, Viscount of Ségur.
...
Wikipedia