Condorcet, Marie-Louise-Sophie de Grouchy, marquise de, 1764-1822

Sophie de Condorcet (Meulan, 1764 – Paris, 8 September 1822), also known as Sophie de Grouchy and best known and styled as Madame de Condorcet, was a prominent French salon hostess from 1789 to the Reign of Terror, and again from 1799 until her death in 1822. She was also a philosopher and the wife of the mathematician and philosopher Nicolas de Condorcet, who died during the Reign of Terror. Despite his death and the exile of her brother, Marshal Emmanuel de Grouchy, between 1815 and 1821, she maintained her own identity and was well-connected and influential before, during, and after the French Revolution. As a hostess, Madame de Condorcet was popular for her kind heart, beauty, and indifference to a person's class or social origins. Unlike that of her fellow-Girondist hostess Madame Roland, Madame de Condorcet's salon always included other women, notably Olympe de Gouges. Condorcet was also a writer and a translator, being highly educated for her day, and was fluent in English and Italian. Her most important philosophical writing is The Letters on Sympathy, which was published in 1798. She was also an influential translator of and commenter on works by Thomas Paine and Adam Smith.