Julie de Lespinasse
Julie de Lespinasse
1732 — 1776
France
An 18th-century French salonnière, Julie de Lespinasse ran one of the most influential salons in Paris, frequented by the Encyclopédistes. A passionate letter-writer, her correspondence offers a vivid window into the intellectual life of the Enlightenment.
Famous Quotes
« Love is the only passion that tolerates neither past nor future. »
« I live in a whirlwind; I see a thousand people and I am alone. »
Key Facts
- Born on November 9, 1732, in Lyon, the illegitimate daughter of the Comte de Vichy
- From 1764, opened her own salon on the Rue Saint-Dominique in Paris, independent of Mme du Deffand's
- Her salon brought together the greatest Encyclopédistes: d'Alembert, Condorcet, Turgot, and Marmontel
- Maintained a passionate correspondence with the Comte de Guibert, published after her death
- Died on May 22, 1776, in Paris, leaving behind a major body of epistolary work
Works & Achievements
A masterpiece of French epistolary literature, these letters to the Count de Guibert reveal a rare intensity of romantic passion and stand as an exceptional record of the inner life of an Enlightenment woman.
A richly intellectual and emotional exchange between Julie and the mathematician-encyclopédiste, illustrating the deep bonds between friendship, love, and the life of the mind in 18th-century France.
Without having written a work in the conventional sense, Julie de Lespinasse contributed directly to the development of Enlightenment thought by creating a unique space for intellectual exchange, shaping the ideas and careers of the Encyclopédistes.
Her correspondence as a whole — with philosophers, aristocrats, and men of letters — forms an epistolary body of work that attests to her role as an intellectual mediator at the heart of the Enlightenment network.
Anecdotes
Julie de Lespinasse was the illegitimate daughter of the Countess of Albon — a secret carefully kept for years. She was raised discreetly, never officially knowing her true origins, which partly explains the sensitivity and depth of her character.
Introduced into Madame du Deffand's salon as a lady's companion, Julie so quickly won the admiration of its regulars — including d'Alembert — that the jealous old marquise eventually drove her out in 1764. Julie then opened her own salon on the Rue de Bellechasse, which soon eclipsed that of her former patroness.
D'Alembert, the great mathematician and co-editor of the Encyclopédie, fell desperately in love with Julie. He lived for years in the apartment above hers, devoting himself to her entirely — even as Julie was passionately in love with another man, the Marquis de Mora.
Julie de Lespinasse died at 44, worn down by consuming passions and the overuse of medications — notably opium, which she took to ease both her physical heart condition and her emotional anguish. Her letters to the Count de Guibert, discovered after her death, revealed to the world the volcanic intensity of her secret feelings.
Primary Sources
I live to love you; it is the only good that remains to me, the only occupation of my soul. I can think of nothing but you, I can feel nothing except through you.
Mlle de Lespinasse gathers at her home all that Paris counts among philosophers and enlightened minds; her salon has become the meeting place of thinking Europe.
Her salon was the gathering of all who thought in Europe. She had the rare gift of animating conversation without ever stifling it, of bringing out the best in everyone.
It is she who shaped the public mind of our century, by bringing together those who were forming it and giving them a place where their ideas could meet freely.
Key Places
It was here, in this modest apartment in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, that Julie held one of Paris's most influential salons from 1764 to 1776, bringing together encyclopédistes, philosophers, and foreign diplomats.
Julie began here as a lady's companion from 1754; it was in this salon that she formed her first connections with the great minds of the century, before being forced out in 1764.
Julie de Lespinasse's birthplace, where she was born in 1732 under difficult family circumstances stemming from her status as an illegitimate child.
The institution of which d'Alembert, Julie's close friend, was perpetual secretary; Julie exerted a discreet but real influence over academic elections through her network.
Gallery
Julie de Lespinasse
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — After Louis Carrogis Carmontelle
Reading of Voltaire's L'Orphelin de la Chine (a tragedy about Ghengis Khan and his sons, published in 1755), in the salon of Madame Geoffrin (Malmaison, 1812).
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier
A star of the salons
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Jebb, Camilla. [from old catalog]
Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Lespinasse, Julie de, 1732-1776
A star of the salons, Julie de Lespinasse
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Jebb, Camilla
Die Liebesbriefe der Julie de Lespinasse
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Julie de Lespinasse
French: Mlle de Lespinasselabel QS:Lfr,"Mlle de Lespinasse"
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Louis Carrogis Carmontelle
Lettres de Mlle de Lespinasse (éd. Garnier)
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Jeanne Julie Éléonore de Lespinasse, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
The village labourer 1760-1832, a study in the government of England before the reform bill
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Hammond, J. L. (John Lawrence), 1872-1949 Hammond, Barbara (Bradby)
The lady; studies of certain significant phases of her history
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Putnam, Emily James (Smith) Mrs., 1865-1944