As a writer, she showed remarkable good sense, admirable sincerity, rare judgment, justness, and precision; depth and charm were present in a less degree than were other desirable qualities, but she exhibited excellent esprit.  She was probably the most subtile, and at the same time the most fastidious person of the century.  The best portraits of her were written by her own pen; two of them we give, one written at the beginning of her career in 1728, the other at its end in 1774.

“Mme. la Marquise du Deffand is an enemy of all falseness and affectation.  Her talk and countenance are always the faithful interpreters of the sentiment of her soul.  Her form is not fine nor bad.  She has esprit, is reasonable and has a correct taste.  If vivacity at times leads her off, truth soon brings her back.  After she falls into an ennui which extinguishes all the light of her mind, she finds that state insupportable and the cause of such unhappiness, that she blindly embraces all that presents itself, without deliberation.”

(1774.) “They believe Mme. du Deffand to possess more esprit than she really has; they praise and fear her, but she merits neither the one nor the other.  As far as her esprit is concerned, she is what she is; in regard to her form, to her birth and fortune—­nothing extraordinary, nothing distinguished.  Born without great talent, incapable of great application, she is very susceptible to ennui, and, not finding any resource within herself, she resorts to those that surround her and this search is often without success.”

Mme. du Deffand arouses our curiosity because she was such an exceptional character, led such a strange life, made and retained friends in ways so different from those of the noted heroines of the salons.  In her youth, she was beautiful and fascinating, with numerous lovers and numberless suitors, but she grew even more famous as her age increased; when infirm and blind, and living in a convent, she ruled by virtue of her acknowledged authority and was still able to cope with the greatest philosophers, the chief and dean of whom, Voltaire, wrote the following four lines: 

  “Qui vous voit et qui vous entend
  Perd bientot sa philosophie;
  Et tout sage avec Du Deffand
  Voudrait en fou passer sa vie.”

[He who sees and hears you, Soon loses his philosophy.  Wise he who with Du Deffand Insane would pass his life.]

Living long enough to witness the reigns of three kings and one regent, she was brilliant enough to reign over the intellectual and social world for over fifty years, by virtue of her intellectuality, keenness, and wit; yet, among all the great women of France, she is truly the one who deserves genuine pity and sympathy.