The New International Encyclopædia/Gasparin, Valérie Boissier, Countess de

GASPARIN, Valérie Boissier, Countess de (1813-94). A French woman of letters, born at Geneva. She was the wife of Agénor, Count de Gasparin (1810-71) (q.v.). She lived a great part of her life in the Canton Vaud, Switzerland, and was a prolific writer, mostly on religious and social topics. In addition to a number of translations of English and American authors, she published Le mariage au point de vue chrétien (1842), a work which won the Montyon prize from the French Academy; Allons faire fortune à Paris (1844); Un livre pour les femmes mariées (1845); Il y a des pauvres à Paris et ailleurs (1846), which won the Montyon prize of the Academy; Quelques défauts des Chrétiens d'aujourd'hui (1853); Des corporations monastiques au sein du protestantisme (1855); Les horizons prochains (1859); Les horizons célestes (1859); Vesper (1861); Les tristesses humaines (1863); and La lèpre sociale (1870).