DEFFAND, MARIE ANNE DE VICHY-CHAM ROND, MARQUISE DU (1697-178o) , a celebrated Frenchwoman, was born at the château of Chamrond near Charolles (department of Saone-et-Loire) of a noble family on Dec. 25, 1697. Educated at a convent in Paris, she showed a sceptical and cynical turn of mind, which led the abbess to arrange that Massillon should reason with her, but he accomplished nothing. She was married at 21 to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande, marquis du Deffand but they were separated as early as 1722. Mme. du Deffand, young and beautiful, is said by Horace Walpole to have been for a short time the mistress of the regent, the duke of Orleans (Walpole to Gray, Jan. 25, 1766). In 1721 began her friendship with Voltaire, but their regular correspondence dates only from 1736. She spent much time at Sceaux at the court of the duchesse du Maine, where she formed a close friendship with the president Henault. In Paris she was in a sense the rival of Mme. Geoffrin, but the members of her salon were drawn from aristocratic society more than from literary cliques, though Vol taire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle and Mme. de Staal-Delaunay were among the habitués. When Henault introduced D'Alembert, Mme. du Deffand was at once captivated by him. With the encyclopaedists she was never in sympathy, and appears to have tolerated them only for his sake. When she lost her sight in she engaged Mlle. de Lespinasse to help her in enter taining. This lady's wit and charm made some of the guests, D'Alembert among others, prefer her society to that of Mme. du Deffand, and she arranged to receive her friends for an hour be fore the appearance of her patron. When this state of things was discovered Mlle. de Lespinasse was dismissed (1764), but the salon was broken up, for she took with her D'Alembert, Turgot and the literary clique generally. From this time Mme. du Deffand rarely received any literary men. The principal friend ships of her later years were with the duchesse de Choiseul and with Horace Walpole. Her affection for the latter, which dated from 1765, was the most durable of all her attachments. Under the stress of this tardy passion she developed qualities of style and eloquence of which her earlier writings had given little prom ise. In the opinion of Sainte-Beuve the prose of her letters ranks with that of Voltaire as the best of that classical epoch. Walpole refused at first to acknowledge the closeness of their intimacy from fear of the ridicule attaching to her age, but he paid several visits to Paris expressly for the purpose of enjoying her society, and maintained a close and most interesting correspondence with her for 15 years. She died on Sept. 23, 1780, leaving her dog Tonton to the care of Walpole, who was also entrusted with her papers. Of her innumerable witty sayings the best known is her remark on the cardinal de Polignac's account of St. Denis's mirac ulous walk of two miles with his head in his hands,—// n'y a que le premier pas qui coute.
The Correspondance inedite of Mme. du Deffand with D'Alembert, Henault, Montesquieu, and others was published in 2 vols. (1809). In 1810 Mary Berry edited Letters of the Marquise du Deffand to the Hon. Horace Walpole, afterwards earl of Orford, from 1766 to. 178o (4 vols.), and gave numerous extracts from Walpole's letters to Mme. du Deffand, since destroyed. In 1912 Mrs. Paget Toynbee published in 3 vols. Lettres de Mme. du Deffand a Horace Walpole, with 18 of the supposedly lost letters from Walpole. Her letters were also edited by M. de Lescure in Correspondance complete de la marquise du Deffand (1865) , and by the marquis de Ste. Aulaire in Correspondance inedite, etc. (1859 and 1866) . See also Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, vols. i. and xiv. (1852-62) ; L. Percy, Le president Henault et Mme. du Deffand (4th ed., 1893) ; P. de Segur, Esquisses et recits: Mme. du Deffand et sa famine (1908).