Épinay, Louise Tardieu d'Esclavelles, marquise d'

(1726-1783)

   writer

   Often called Mme d'Épinay, Louise Tardieu d'Esclavelles was born in Valenciennes. After separating in 1749 from her husband, D. J. de la Live d'Épinay, she moved to the château of La Chevrette, Montmorency, where her salons were attended by such leaders of the Enlightenment and notable 18th-century figures as denis diderot, Baron F. M. von Grimm, and jean-jacques rousseau. In 1756, she provided a rural cottage, l'Hermitage, for Rousseau, from whom she later became estranged. she also carried on an extensive correspondence with various European sovereigns and, in her later years, entertained her literary friends at her small home, la Briche, near La Chevrette. Among these was Grimm, her literary heir with whom she had had a liaison since 1755. D'Épinay's writings include Les conversations d'Émilie (1774), in which she prescribed the moral upbringing of her granddaughter, Lettres à mon fils (1752), her Mémoires (posthumous, 1818), and an Histoire de Mme de Montbrillant, an autobiographical work written in collaboration with Diderot (posthumous, 1818).