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GEOFFRIN, MARIE THERESE RODET (1699-1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 618 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEOFFRIN, See also:MARIE THERESE RODET (1699-1777) , a Frenchwoman who played an interesting See also:part in See also:French See also:literary and See also:artistic See also:life, was See also:born in See also:Paris n [699. She married, on the 19th of See also:July 1713, See also:Pierre See also:Francois Geoffrin, a See also:rich manufacturer and See also:lieutenant-See also:colonel of the See also:National Guard, who died in 175o. It was not till Mme Geoffrin was nearly fifty years of See also:age that we begin to hear of her as a See also:power in Parisian society. She had learned much from Mme de See also:Tencin, and about 1748 began to gather See also:round her a literary and artistic circle. She had every See also:week two dinners, on See also:Monday for artists, and on Wednesday for her See also:friends the Encyclopaedists and other men of letters. She received many foreigners of distinction, See also:Hume and See also:Horace See also:Walpole among others. Walpole spent much See also:time in her society before he was finally attached to Mme du See also:Deffand, and speaks of her in his letters as a See also:model of See also:common sense. She was indeed somewhat of a small See also:tyrant in her circle. She had adopted the pose of an old woman earlier than necessary, and her coquetry, if XI. 20 a such it can be called, took the See also:form of being See also:mother and See also:mentor to her guests, many of whom were indebted to her generosity for substantial help. Although her aim appears, to have been to have the Encyclopedie in conversation and See also:action around her, she was extremely displeased with any of her friends who were so rash as to incur open disgrace. See also:Marmontel lost her favour after the See also:official censure of Belisaire, and her advanced views did not prevent her from observing the forms of See also:religion.

A devoted Parisian, Mme Geoffrin rarely See also:

left the See also:city, so that her See also:journey to See also:Poland in 1766 to visit the See also:king, Stanislas See also:Poniatowski, whom she had known in his See also:early days in Paris, was a See also:great event in her life. Her experiences induced a sensible gratitude that she had been born " Francaise " and " particuliere." In her last illness her daughter, Therese, marquise de la Ferte Imbault, excluded her mother's old friends so that she might See also:die as a See also:good See also:Christian, a proceeding wittily described by the old See also:lady: " My daughter is like See also:Godfrey de See also:Bouillon, she wished to defend my See also:tomb from the infidels." Mme Geoff rin died in Paris on the 6th of See also:October 1777. See See also:Correspondence inedite du roi Stanislas Auguste Poniatowski et de Madame Geoffrin, edited by the See also:comte de 1\,Iouy (1875) ; P. de See also:Segur, Le Royaume de la See also:rue See also:Saint-Honore, Madame Geoffrin et sa fille (1897) ; A. Tornezy, Un See also:Bureau d'esprit au X VIIIe siecle: le See also:salon de Madame Geoff rin (1895) ; and See also:Janet Aldis, Madame Geoffrin, her Salon and her Times, 1750-1977 (1905).

End of Article: GEOFFRIN, MARIE THERESE RODET (1699-1777)

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