EPINAY, ii-pe-na!, MadameIle la Live d' (LOUISE FLORENCE PETRONILLE TARDIEU D'ES CLAVELLES) , French writer: b. Valenciennes 11 March 1726: d. Paris, 17 April 1783. She was the daughter of M. Tardieu Desclavelles, an officer of high rank, governor of Valen ciennes and married her cousin d'Epinay. But his extravagance soon compelled her to separate from him. During the earlier part of her life she formed an acquaintance with Rousseau, who, quick and susceptible in all his feelings, devoted himself to the fascinating and accom plished woman with an ardor, the depth and streng.th of which he describes himself in his (Confessions.> She was not insensible to the homage of her °bear,' as she used to call him, on account of his eccentricities, and did all that was in her power to place him in a situation corresponding to his wishes. She gave him a cottage (the Hermitage, since so famous) in her park of Chevrette, in the vale of Mont morency. Here the author of the (Nouvelle Heloise) passed many days, rendered hvpy by his romantic attachment to Madame d'Epinay; until he became jealous of Baron Grinun, whom he had himself introduced to her; and in con sequence of this feeling, which he took no pains to conceal, a coolness and finally an aversion took place between him and the lady, which is but too plainly expressed in his (Confessions.) A defense of the later conduct of Madame d'Epinay toward Rousseau may be found in Grimm's 'Correspondence,' where an account is also given of some works written by her, of which the most celebrated is
cold but neat style, sets forth the principles of moral instruction for children, with equal elegance and depth of thought. It obtained, in 1783, the prize offered by Monthion (the chan cellor to the Count d'Artois) for useful works of this kind, in preference to the (Adele et Theodore) of Madame de Genlis. She also wrote 'Lettres a mon fils,' and (Mes moments henreux.) An abridgment of her memoirs and correspondence, showing her relations with Duclos, Rousseau, Grimm, Holbach, Lambert, etc., appeared in 1818. They give a true picture of the refined but corrupt manners which pre vailed among the higher classes in France dur ing the government of Louis XV.
Bibliography.— Beaune, H., de la vie privee au XVIII e Siecle) (1903) ; Cam pardon, E.., Prodigalites d' un fermier (1882) ; Fallue, L., (La Marquise d'Epinay et ses relations dans la vallee de Montmorency avec la societe (1766); Galiani, L'abbe, 'Correspondence' (1881) ; Musset-Pathay, inedilis pour faire suite aux memoires de Mde. d'Epinay) (1818) ; Perey, L., and Maugras, G., Jeunesse de Madame d'Epinay' (1883) ; Rousseau, J. J., ; Sainte-Beuve, du Lundi) ; Scherer, E., (Etudes sur la littirature contemporaine'; Streckeisen Moulton, J. J., ses amis et ses ennemis) (1865).