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LESPINASSE, JEANNE JULIE ELEONORE DE ...
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See also:LESPINASSE, JEANNE JULIE ELEONORE DE (1732-1776) , See also:French author, was See also:born at See also:Lyons on the 9th of See also:November 1732. A natural See also:child of the comtesse d'Albon, she was brought up as the daughter of See also:Claude Lespinasse of Lyons. On leaving her See also:convent school she became governess in the See also:house of her See also:mother's legitimate daughter, Mme de See also:Vichy, who had married the See also:brother of the marquise du See also:Deffand. Here Mme du Deffand made her acquaintance, and, recognizing her extraordinary gifts, persuaded her to come to See also:Paris as her See also:companion. The See also:alliance lasted ten years (1954–1764) until Mme du Deffand became jealous of the younger woman's increasing See also:influence, when a violent See also:quarrel ensued. Mlle de Lespinasse set up a See also:salon of her own which was joined by many of the most brilliant members of Mme du Deffand's circle. D'See also:Alembert was one of the most assiduous of her See also:friends and eventually came to live under the same roof. There was no See also:scandal attached to this arrangement, which ensured d'Alembert's comfort and See also:lent influence to Mlle de Lespinasse's salon. Although she had neither beauty nor See also:rank, her ability as a hostess made her reunions the most popular in Paris. She owes her distinction, however, not to her social success, but to circumstances which remained a See also:secret during her lifetime from her closest friends. Two volumes of Lettres published in 1809 displayed her as the victim of a See also:passion of a rare intensity. In virtue of this ardent, intense quality Sainte Beuve and other of her critics See also:place her letters in the limited See also:category to which belong the Latin letters of HeloIse and those of the Portuguese See also:Nun. Her first passion, a reasonable and serious one, was for the See also:marquis de See also:Mora, son of the See also:Spanish See also:ambassador in Paris. De Mora had come to Paris in 1765, and with some intervals remained there until 1772 when he was ordered to See also:Spain for his See also:health. On the way to Paris in 1974 to fulfil promises exchanged with Mlle de Lespinasse, he died at See also:Bordeaux. But her letters to the See also:comte de See also:Guibert, the worthless See also:object of her fatal infatuation, begin from 1773. From the struggle between her See also:affection for de Mora and her See also:blind passion for her new See also:lover they go on to describe her partial disenchantment on Guibert's See also:marriage and her final despair. Mlle de Lespinasse died on the 23rd of May 1776, her See also:death being apparently hastened by the. agitation and misery to which she had been for the last three years of her See also:life a See also:prey. In addition to the Lettres she was the author of two chapters intended as a See also:kind of sequel to See also:Sterne's Sentimental See also:Journey.
Her Lettres . . were published by Mme de Guibert in 1809 and a See also:spurious additional collection appeared in 182o. Among See also:modern See also:editions may be mentioned that of See also:Eugene Asse (1876-1897). Lettres inedites de Mademoiselle de Lespinasse a See also:Condorcet, a D'Alembert, a Guibert, au comte de Crillon, edited by M. See also: Mrs See also:Humphry See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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