"A masterful essay.it will be impossible to claim knowledge of the comtesse de S駵r if you have not read Sophie Heywood's book." -- R魩 Saudray, review in Cahiers S駵riens, 10 (2012) pp. 161-167."Heywood has made S駵r a figure of considerable interest to historians, not just biographers or literary scholars." -- Sarah A. Curtis, French History, 2012"Winner of the 2012 University of Reading Research Endowment Trust Fund Best Research Output Prize""The strength of this informative and insightful book is its ability to contextualize the life story and the writings of the comtesse de S駵r without losing sight of the complexities that both present. Neither S駵r's life nor her writings were always consistent, yet in showing how they intersected with new ideas about childhood, a militant Catholic revival, new publishing strategies, and shifting notions of gender, Heywood hasmade S駵r a figure of considerable interest to historians, not just biographers or literary scholars.

" -- Sarah A. Curtis, French History, vol 26, no 4, December 2012.