Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin, comtesse de Genlis

Stéphanie Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin
Portrait of Madame de Genlis (1746–1830), by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
Born	(1746-01-25)25 January 1746 Issy-l'Évêque, Saône-et-Loire
Died	31 December 1830(1830-12-31) (aged 84)
Language	French
Citizenship	France
Genre	Novels
Spouse	Charles-Alexis Brûlart, Comte de Genlis

Stéphanie Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin, Comtesse de Genlis (25 January 1746 – 31 December 1830), known as Madame de Genlis, was a French writer, harpist and educator.

Félicité de Genlis was born at the château of Champcéry in Issy-l'Évêque, Saône-et-Loire, of a noble but impoverished Burgundian family. At six years old she was received as a canoness into the noble chapter of Alix near Lyon, with the title of Madame la Comtesse de Lancy, taken from the town of Bourbon-Lancy. Her entire education was conducted at home.

In 1758, in Paris, her skill as a harpist and her vivacious wit speedily attracted admiration. At the age of sixteen she was married to Charles-Alexis Brûlart, Comte de Genlis (afterwards Marquis de Sillery), a colonel of grenadiers, but this was not allowed to interfere with her determination to remedy her incomplete education, and to satisfy a taste for acquiring and imparting knowledge.

Some years later, through the influence of her aunt, Madame de Montesson, who had been clandestinely married to the duc d'Orléans, Stéphanie-Félicité entered the Palais Royal as a lady-in-waiting to their daughter-in-law Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Chartres as the wife of their heir Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Chartres.

She acted with great energy and zeal as governess to the daughters of the family, and in 1781 was appointed by the duke of Chartres to the responsible office of gouverneur of his sons – a bold step which led to the resignation of all the tutors as well as to much social scandal, though there is no reason to suppose that the intellectual interests of her pupils suffered on that account.