Sophie Rostopchine, countess of Ségur
Sophie Feodorovna Rostopchine, countess of Ségur , born the 1799 with Saint-Pétersbourg and dead the February 9th 1874 with Paris, is a Woman of letters French E of Russian birth re-elected for its books for children, whose most known is entitled Misfortunes of Sophie .
Biography
Of a family of Mongolian origin , his/her father the count Fédor Rostoptchine (1763 - 1826) was lieutenant-general then Foreign Minister of Paul I {{er}}. In 1812 he is governor of Moscow at the time of the entry of the Large army. In spite of the opposition of the owners of the most beautiful residences, it would have organized the large fire which obliged Napoleon with a disastrous retirement.In spite of the success of this plan, those which lost their manors put it in a situation so uncomfortable that he prefers to exile in Poland in 1814, then in Germany and Italy and finally in France in 1817. It is there that Sophie who, with her mother, converted with the Catholicisme, meets Eugene de Ségur (back grandson of the marshal of Ségur) whom it marries the July 14th 1819.
Her unsteady husband, desilvered and désœuvré until in 1830 where it will be named even France, does not come to visit him in his castle of Nouettes, close to the Eagle in the Orne, that to make him eight children. It is told that it had called it “the Gigogne mother”.
Polyglot, speaking five languages since age the six years, Sophie Rostopchine often presented a hysterical behavior with attacks of nerves and long periods of aphasia, obliging it to correspond with his entourage using his famous slate. It is buried with Pluneret in the Morbihan.
A late vocation of writer
The case of the countess of Ségur shows that a very late vocation of writer can be particularly succeeded: she indeed wrote its first book with fifty-eight years.It is told that the countess of Ségur started to devote herself to the literature for children when she wrote the tales which she told with her grandchildren and who she gathered them to form what is called today the new fairy tales . At the time of a reception, it lute some passages to Louis Veuillot to calm the atmosphere which had become tended. It is the latter which will succeed in making publish work at Hachette.
Novels
The novels of the countess of Ségur were published between 1857 and 1872 in the pink Bibliothèque illustrated at Hachette. They were joined together in 1990 pennies the title Œuvres of the countess of Ségur in the collection “Books” in the editor Robert Laffont. Even if the recurrent theme of the corporal punishments ( a good little devil , the General Dourakine , Misfortunes of Sophie …) - which perhaps partly echoes its own unhappy childhood with his/her mother Catherine Protassov - was often presented like the aspect of this work to have the least best aged, it actually acts much more than one rupture with the models of children's literature of the time with a all the more exemplary redemption as the realism of the representation was without kindness. Several other topics or facts can seem obsolete compared to the life of the French of today: for example, the use of the vous of the parents, the role of the servants, and medical care such as the improper use of leeches, the bleedings, the cataplasms " powdered with camphre" ( model Little girls ), the fresh gum water, salt water against the rage, and so on. But it is perhaps this realism in the representation of the daily newspaper and its details which been worth with the countess of Ségur to be called the Balzac of the children by Marcelle Tinayre.
Sources of inspiration
The countess of Ségur gave to several her characters names belonging to people of her entourage. Here are some examples:
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Sophie: its own first name, that it will give to a mischievous character, sometimes unhappy, to which the countess is identified obviously much. See the dedication in Misfortunes of Sophie .
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Camille and Madeleine: two of its named grand-daughters Camille and Madeleine de Malaret.
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Paul: his/her son-in-law, the father of the model little girls, the baron Paul de Malaret.
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Elisabeth: Elisabeth Fresneau was another grand-daughter of the countess.
It is the blindness contracted by his/her oldest son Gaston de Ségur, ecclesiastic, who inspires the Juliette blind man to him in a good little devil
To note that the first names or names of the characters allow continuation to know which will be the behavior that the latter will adopt.
- Of the names " propres" or noble for the " gentils" : of Réan in Misfortunes of Sophie , Bonard in the Evil genius , of Orvillet in Diloy the chemineau , etc
- Of the ridiculous names for the " without-éducations" or tangent: Turn-swell in the model Little girls , Innocent and Simplicie like Short-round loaf in Two Simpletons , etc
- Of the names with negative conations for the " méchants" : the group Gredinet, Fourbillon, Gueusard and Renardot in Evil genius , etc
Lessons of morals in works of the countess of Ségur
The novels of the countess of Ségur are strongly moralizers. The Juste and the unjust one are opposed for well rendering comprehensible what is the right way and how much it is in the interest of all to be courageous, soft and without bad intentions.
In the novels of the countess of Ségur, education is a determining factor in the evolution of the individual. The bad influences and a repressive environment can push the children with being malicious. Too much laxism and indulgence makes them egoistic and vicious.
The novels oppose examples of what it is necessary to do and of what one should not make. The titles express this duality besides: for example, Jean which grogne and Jean who laughs . The author often opposes an exemplary character to a child who seeks himself: exemplary little girls that are Camille and Madeleine in the unhappy Sophie in the model Little girls , Blaise with Jules in Pauvre Blaise and Juliette with Charles in a good little devil .
In certain cases, the young hero makes faults which result from a repressive and brutal education, violence and the injustice which saw Charles with Mac' Round loaf, or Sophie, in model Little girls which is made maltreat by its mantle Mrs. Fichini. In other cases, they are the parents who spoil and never their children punish, or who systematically take their defense, whatever their behavior, like the parents of Jules in Pauvre Blaise or of Gisele in Quel love of child!
In the children, nothing is played definitively. Charles ( a good Little devil ) and Sophie ( model little girls ), once withdrawn from the brutality of their environment, will be able to be based on the models of their entourage to improve.
On the other hand it is sometimes too late for some, which then become these malicious and puerile adults who will make in their turn the misfortune of their children (parents of Christine in François uneven the). Mrs. Fichini, in the Holidays and the model Little girls , beats Sophie without pity, and, even in the presence of the adults, ridicules herself per too much coquettery, her greediness and all the defects of which it should have gotten rid being child.
Works
- 1855 the Health of the children , a book of medical councils, published on account of author, republished since 1857
- 1857 Book of mass of the small children (at Douniol ED.)
All the following books were published at Hachette ( LSDE : prepublication in the columns of the Week of the children ) : 1866 :
the new Fairy tales : collection of tales of which Blondine
the Fortune of Gaspard , a novel with Balzac accents , contrary to the other novels of the countess of Ségur
The editions Dominique Martin Morin republished in a total way, in 1997, under the title “ the Bible of a grandmother ”, the three works the Gospel of a grandmother (1865), the Acts of the Apostles (1867) and the Bible of a grandmother (1868)
The Éditions Robert Laffont as for them collected, in three volumes of Œuvres , published in 1990, in the collection “Books”, most of works of the countess of Ségur. This edition is established and annotated by Claudine Beaussant:
Correspondence
The correspondence of the countess of Ségur has, as for it, is the subject of fragmentary editions:- the Letters of the countess of Ségur to her editor (1855 to 1872) , in volume 1 of the Works at Robert Laffont, cf supra ,
- a selective Correspondence (various correspondents), published in 1993 with the Scala editions, with a foreword of Michel Tournier,
- the Letters with the Viscount and the viscountess de Pitray (son-in-law and girl of the countess), published in 1891 at Hatchet.
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