Sophie Comtesse de Ségur

Sophie Rostopchine, Countess of Ségur, was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1799. She was the daughter of Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin, a general and politician who was the governor of Moscow when Napoleon and the Grand Army entered the city. Tradition considers the count as the instigator of the Moscow fire, although he was always opposed to this plan. In 1817, the family settled in France, and in 1819, Sophie married the Count of Ségur. She spent a significant part of her life on their estates in Nouettes, Orne, where the Countess of Ségur wrote "Memoirs of a Donkey," "Sophie's Misfortunes," "The Exemplary Girls," and all the stories that made her famous and have preserved her reputation to this day. The Countess of Ségur spent her final years in Paris, where she passed away in 1874