LESPINASSE, JULIE DE (1732-1776), French author, was born at Lyons. A natural child of the comtesse d'Albon, she was brought up as the daughter of Claude Lespinasse of Lyons. On leaving her convent school she became governess in the house of her mother's legitimate daughter, Mme. de Vichy, who had married the brother of the marquise du Deffand. Here Mme. du Deffand made her acquaintance, and, recognizing her extraordi nary gifts, persuaded her to come to Paris as her companion. The alliance lasted ten years (1754-64), until Mme. du Deffand became jealous of the younger woman's increasing influence. when a violent quarrel ensued. Mlle. de Lespinasse set up a salon of her own which was joined by many of the most brilliant mem bers of Mme. du Deffand's circle. D'Alembert was one of the most assiduous of her friends and eventually came to live under the same roof. There was no scandal attached to this arrange ment, which ensured d'Alembert's comfort and lent influence to Mlle. de Lespinasse's salon. Although she had neither beauty nor rank, her ability as a hostess made her reunions the most popular in Paris. She owes her lasting fame, however, not to her social success, but to circumstances which remained a secret during her lifetime from her closest friends. Two volumes of Lettres published in 1809 displayed her as the victim of a passion of rare intensity. In virtue of this ardent, intense quality Sainte Beuve and other of her critics place her letters in the limited category to which belong the Latin letters of Heloise and those of the Portuguese Nun. Her first passion, a reasonable and serious one, was for the marquis de Mora, son of the Spanish ambassa dor in Paris. De Mora had come to Paris in 1765, and with some
intervals remained there until 1772 when he was ordered to Spain for his health. On the way to Paris in 1774 to fulfil promises exchanged with Mlle. de Lespinasse, he died at Bordeaux. But her letters to the comte de Guibert, the worthless object of her fatal infatuation, begin from 1773. From the struggle between her affection for de Mora and her blind passion for her new lover they go on to describe her partial disenchantment on Guibert's marriage and her final despair. Mlle. de Lespinasse died on May 23, 1776, her death being apparently hastened by the agitation and misery to which she had been a prey for the last three years of her life. In addition to the Lettres she was the author of two chapters intended as a kind of sequel to Sterne's Sentimental Journey.
Her Lettres . . . were published by Mme. de Guibert in 18o9 (mod ern ed. by J. Janin 1847 ; new ed. 1877) ; a spurious additional collec tion appeared in 582o. See also Lettres inedites de Mademoiselle de Lespinasse a Condorcet, a D'Alembert, a Guibert, au comte de Crillon, ed. Charles Henry (1887) Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse with notes on her life and character by D'Alembert, Marmontel, de Guibert, etc. and an introduction by C. A. Sainte-Beuve, trans. by K. P. Wormeley (1902) ; Correspondence entre Mademoiselle de Lespinasse et le comte de Guibert ed. comte de Villeneuve-Guibert (1 906) ; Marquis de Segur, Julie de Lespinasse (1905 ; Eng. trans. 1907) ; Mrs. Humphrey Ward's novel, Lady Rose's Daughter, owes something to the character of Mlle. de Lespinasse.