Sophie Cottin (22 March 1770 – 25 August 1807) was a French writer whose novels were popular in the 19th century, and were translated into several different languages.

Biography

Marie Sophie Ristaud (sometimes spelt Risteau) was born in March 1770 at

Tonneins Tonneins (; ) is a town in the Lot-et-Garonne Departments of France, department of south-western France. It stands above the river Garonne, between Marmande to the west and Agen to the east, and is the first major town below the confluence of t ...

. She was not yet twenty when she married her first husband, Jean-Paul-Marie Cottin, a banker. She wrote several romantic and historical novels including ''Elizabeth; or, the Exiles of Siberia'' (''Elisabeth ou les Exilés de Sibérie'' 1806), a "wildly romantic but irreproachably moral tale", according to Nuttall's Encyclopaedia. She also published ''Claire d'Albe'' (1799), ''Malvina'' (1801), ''Amélie de Mansfield'' (1803), ''Mathilde'' (1805), set in the

crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, and a prose-poem, ''La Prise de Jéricho''. Her writing became more important to her after her first husband died when she was in her early twenties. She went to live with a cousin and her three children at Champlan (

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () is a former department of France, which encompassed the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its prefecture was Versailles and its administrative number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was disbanded in ...

) but died at the age of 37 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on 25 August 1807.

List of works

* ''Claire d'Albe'' (1799) * ''Malvina'' (1800) * ''Amélie Mansfield'' (1802) ** English translation : ''Amelia Mansfield : a novel'' (1809)Madame Cottin
Amelia Mansfield : a novel
London : Printed for Henry Colburn ..., 1809, 3 vol. * ''Mathilde'' (1805) * ''Élisabeth ou Les exilés de Sibérie'' (1806)

References

Bibliography

* * * Silvia Lorusso, ''Le Charme sans la beauté, vie de Sophie Cottin'', Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2018. ISBN 978-2-406-08007-7 * Silvia Lorusso, ''Comment s’affranchir de la passion. Le pouvoir de la religion dans les derniers romans de Sophie Cottin'', in F. Bercegol et M. Gardini (dir.), ''Littérature et religion'', in « Cahiers de littérature française », n. 21, 2022, p. 29-40. ISSN 1971-4882 ; ISBN 9-782406-144526 * Silvia Lorusso, ''Sophie Cottin et la religion'', in « Orages », n. 20, 2022, p. 171-181. ISSN 1635-5202 * Silvia Lorusso, ''Madame Cottin face à Madame de Staël'', in F. Bercegol et C. Klettke (dir.), ''Les femmes en mouvement – L’univers sentimental et intellectuel des romancières du début du XIXe siècle'', Berlin, Frank & Timme, 2017, p. 73-87. ISBN 978-3-7329-0322-1 * Silvia Lorusso, ''Sophie Cottin et « le triste honneur de former une nouvelle école de romanciers »'', in F. Bercegol, S. Genand et F. Lotterie (dir.), ''Une « période sans nom ». Les années 1780-1820 et la fabrique de l’histoire littéraire'', Classiques Garnier, Paris 2016, p. 205-222. ISBN 978-2-406-05998-1 * Silvia Lorusso, ''Lettre inédite de Madame Cottin sur la loi du divorce'', in « Revue italienne d’études françaises », nline n. 1, 2011. ISSN 2240-7456

External links

* *
Introduction to Amélie Mansfield
(''in French'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Cottin, Sophie Ristaud 1770 births 1807 deaths People from Lot-et-Garonne French women novelists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 18th-century French women writers 18th-century French letter writers People from Agenais