author
Comtesse de Genlis
A sharp-eyed French writer and educator, she turned fiction and moral instruction into bestselling reading in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Her life moved through aristocratic salons, revolutionary upheaval, and a remarkably prolific literary career.
1 Audiobook
De l'emploi du temps
by Comtesse de Genlis
About the author
Born Stéphanie Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin in 1746, the Comtesse de Genlis became one of the most visible literary figures of her time. She wrote novels, plays, memoirs, and educational works, and she is especially remembered for her ideas about children's reading and moral education.
She moved in the circle of the house of Orléans and was entrusted with the education of the duke's children, a role that made her unusually prominent for a woman in public intellectual life. Her books often mixed storytelling with lessons about conduct, religion, and practical learning, reflecting her belief that literature should help shape character.
Genlis lived through the French Revolution and its aftermath, and her long career gives readers a vivid window into a turbulent age. Today she is valued not only as a prolific novelist and teacher, but also as a memoirist whose writing preserves the tone, worries, and ambitions of her world.