Madame (Sophie) Cottin

Born Marie Sophie Ristaud in Tonneins in 1770, she later became known as Madame Cottin after marrying banker Jean-Paul-Marie Cottin. Widowed while still young, she turned seriously to writing and published a series of novels in the early 1800s.

Her best-known works include Claire d'Albe (1799), Malvina (1800), Amélie Mansfield (1802), Mathilde (1805), and Élisabeth, ou les Exilés de Sibérie (1806). Her fiction is often described as sentimental and romantic, with intense feeling, peril, virtue, and sacrifice at the center of the story.

Although she died in 1807, her books continued to circulate widely in translation and helped build her reputation outside France. She is remembered as an early popular novelist whose work stands near the beginnings of French Romanticism.