A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Houdetot, Sophie de la Briche, Countess d'
HOUDETOT, SOPHIE DE LA BRICHE, COUNTESS D',
Was born at Paris, in 1730. Her father was an officer of the government; and she married the Count d'Houdetot in 1748. This lady was the friend of St. Lambert, and was highly esteemed by Rousseau and Marmontel.
The power by which Madame d'Houdetot captivated the gay, handsome, dissipated St. Lambert, or kindled the imagination of Rousseau, was not that of beauty. Her face was plain, and slightly marked with the small-pox; her eyes were not good; she was extremely short-sighted, which made her often appear ungraceful; she was small in person, and, but for her warm kindness of heart and cheerful sunshine of spirit, would have been quite overlooked in the world. To her singular power of charming, Madame d'Houdetot added talents of no common order, though never much cultivated. She was a musician, a poet, a wit; but every thing "par la grace de Dieu" However, all these gifts, and her benevolence of her nature, will not make amends for her bad morals. She died in 1813, aged eighty-three. Her poems were only published as fugitive pieces.