The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Cottin, Madame Sophie Ristaud

COTTIN, Madame Sophie Ristaud, a French novelist, born at Tonneins in 1773, died in Paris, Aug. 25, 1807. In 1790 she married M. Cottin, a wealthy banker of Bordeaux, who died in 1793. The publication of her first novel, Claire d'Albe (1798), was said to have been due to her desire of benefiting a needy friend. Her novel Élisabeth, ou Les exilés de Sibérie (1806), was her most careful production, and has been more generally translated into foreign languages than any of her other novels. She published her works anonymously until the attention which they attracted forced her to reveal her name. Among her other novels are Malvina, Amélie, and Mathilde. Complete editions of her works appeared in 1817 and 1823.