Sophie de Grouchy was born as Marie-Louise-Sophie de Grouchy on April 8th, 1764, at the Chateau de Meulan in Paris, France. A former page of Louis XV, her father was Francois-Jacques, 1st Marquis de Grouchy. Her mother was Marie-Gilberte-Henriette Fréateau de Pény. She was the eldest of four children – Charlotte, her sister, and two brothers. One of her brothers, Emmanuel de Grouchy, was a French general and Marshal of the Empire under Napoleon (1, 2). In fact, Emmanuel de Grouchy was rumored to be responsible for the French defeat at Waterloo because he allegedly waited until after he finished his dessert of strawberries to pursue the Prussians (2).
Throughout her childhood, Grouchy was educated at home, where she took advantage of her brothers’ tutors and her mother’s propensity for intellectualism. When she turned 18, Grouchy continued her education in Neuville, at the Chanoinesse School – a convent finishing school for the extremely wealthy. In Neuville, Grouchy studied works by Rousseau and Voltaire, and she learned Italian and English by translating texts by Torquato Tasso and Arthur Young. Also while in Neuville, Grouchy became an atheist (2).
In 1786, when Grouchy was 22, she married Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, a famous mathematician and philosopher. Condorcet was the Inspector-General of the Mint under Turgot. The couple shared many intellectual interests (1).
Shortly after getting married, the couple moved to the Hotel of the Mint in Paris, opposite the Louvre. There, Grouchy (now Madame de Condorcet) began a salon. This salon would grow to be very famous and would host a variety of significant members of the political and literary scene, both French and international (2). Attendants of Grouchy’s salon include Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, Olympe de Gouges, and many other prominent philosophers and academics. Grouchy’s salon played a significant role in the rise of the Girondin movement, a political faction during the French Revolution which emphasized the rights of women (1).
In 1791, Grouchy helped start a journal with her husband, Thomas Paine, and Brissot – a Girondin – called Le Républicain. This journal was dedicated to raising awareness of republican political thought in France. For the few months that it ran, Grouchy wrote several pieces (often signing with “La Vérité” or Truth) and translated pieces by Paine. It is thought that the first draft of Grouchy’s Letters on Sympathy was written during this time (2).
In 1793, Grouchy’s husband was denounced by the Jacobin government and was forced to go into hiding to escape arrest (2). Throughout this time, Grouchy visited him secretly; she encouraged him to continue writing and, during this period in hiding, Condorcet produced his most notable work, Esquisse d’un Tableau Historique des Progrès de l’Espirit Humain (Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind) (1). In spring of 1794, Condorcet attempted to flee and died in the process (2).
After her husband’s death, a penniless Grouchy had to paint miniature portraits (2) to support herself, her daughter Eliza, and Charlotte, her younger sister (1). Shortly after the Reign of Terror ended, in 1798, Grouchy published her Letters on Sympathy, a commentary on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), alongside a translation of his work (1).
After this, Grouchy devoted her time in writing to editing her late husband’s literary works. Grouchy also maintained the existence of her salon and participated actively in French philosophical life (2). Sophie de Grouchy died on September 8th, 1822, in Paris (1).
References
- Berges, Sandrine, “Sophie de Grouchy”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/sophie-de-grouchy.
- Wikipedia contributors, “Sophie de Condorcet,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sophie_de_Condorcet&oldid=1000133680 (accessed March 24, 2021).
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