Valérie de Gasparin

Valérie Boissier, comtesse de Gasparin (13 September 1813 - 1894) was a Swiss woman of letters. She was a spokeswoman in topics such as freedom, equality and creativity.

Biography

She was born at Geneva. She was the wife of Agénor de Gasparin. She lived a great part of her life in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, and was a prolific writer on religion, social topics and travel. She was conspicuous as an opponent of religious and social innovations.

Works

In addition to a number of translations of English and American authors, she published:

• Le mariage au point de vue chrétien, a work which won the Montyon prize from the French Academy (Marriage from the Christian Point of View, 1842)
• Allons faire fortune à Paris (Let's Go Make a Fortune in Paris, 1844)
• Un livre pour les femmes mariées (A Book for Wives, 1845)
• Il y a des pauvres à Paris et ailleurs, which also won the Montyon prize (There are Poor in Paris and Elsewhere, 1846)
• Quelques défauts des Chrétiens d'aujourd'hui (1853)
• Des corporations monastiques au sein du protestantisme (1855)
• Les horizons prochains (The Near Horizon, 1859)
• Les horizons célestes (The Heavenly Horizons, 1859)
• Vesper (1861)
• Les tristesses humaines (Human Sadness, 1863)
• Au bord de la mer (By the Sea Shore, 1866)
• La lèpre sociale (1870)
• Journey in the South by an Ignoramus
• Read and Judge, strictures on the Salvation Army
• Under French Skies or Sunny Fields and Shady Woods (1888)
• Edelweiss: poésies; l’auteur des horizons prochains (1890)
• Sur les montagnes (1890)

Several of her books were translated into English, the books of 1859 being read very widely in the United States in their English form.