Journal de Madame du Deffand, 1779 July 1-1780 September 10.

1 v. ([76], [206] p.) ; 20 cm.

French

Part of the ms. collection bequeathed by Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole. Sold at Strawberry Hill Sale, 1842, to D.O. Dyce-Sombre whose nephew, W.R. Parker-Jervis, sold it in 1920. Acquired by W.S. Lewis in 1933.

Marie Anne de Vichy Chamrond, marquise du Deffand (1697-1780), was married at 21 to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande, marquis du Deffand. The marriage resulted in a separation as early as 1722. However, her intelligence, cynicism, and wit gained her such friends as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle and Madame de Staal-Delaunay, the president Henault, and D'Alembert. The principal friendships of her later years were with the duchesse de Choiseul and with Horace Walpole. She died on September 23, 1780, leaving her papers to Walpole.

Madame du Deffand's diary, written in the hand of Jean-Francois Wiart, she having lost her sight in 1754, for the last months from July 1779 to September 1780 in which she records details of her dinner engagements with her circle of friends, the entries ending less than two weeks before her death on September 23. She also makes note of who she has corresponded with that day and records details of interest to her about 01the news contained in the letters she receives or events of the day.

June 01, 2002

a Journal de Madame du Deffand, 1779 July 1-1780 September 10. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Diaries.