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Original Title:	Les Malheurs de Sophie
ISBN:	2012011411 (ISBN13: 9782012011410)
Edition Language:	French
Series:	Fleurville #1

Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

Comtesse de Ségur

Paperback | Pages: 187 pages

Rating: 3.91 | 3843 Users | 148 Reviews

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Les malheurs de Sophie will forever have a special place in my heart, because it was the book which started it all. My love of reading, my desire to collect books and build my own library, my obsession with the 19th century, my preference for all things historical...this is an important book.

I received it for my 10th birthday, and it was the very first novel I ever owned. At that age, I was already a certified book-lover and I loved reading short novels and comics. I was the kid who got giddy when the teacher told us to read quietly in class, and "library class" was the best thing ever (that period once a week where you got to go to the library and check out a few books during school time). So, I was extremely happy when I received my first novel, and I remember diving into it immediately and devouring it in a few days. I was completely hooked and wanted more of la Comtesse de Ségur's books. Over the years I've read all of them, and still own most of them. It became a tradition to receive one or two of her works for my birthday or Christmas.

Set in 19th century France, Les Malheurs de Sophie is a wonderful collection of a mischievously delightful little girl's antics. At four years old, Sophie is vain, proud, lazy, and disobedient. She gets angry easily, she hits people, she lies, and best of all, she has the most active imagination ever and always, always gets horrendous ideas that put her and her cousin Paul into serious trouble. In other words, Sophie is a perfectly normal four-year-old. She wants to be thought pretty, loves to push her maman to her limits to see how far she can get away with her "ideas", doesn't think twice before acting, hits her cousin whenever he teases her and, like all the other four-year-olds who ever drew breath, lies to try to get out of punishments. Completely normal things.

True, Sophie is nonetheless a pest and always ends up causing trouble, but she is so adorable anyways that you can't help but love her and find her irresistibly cute. At least, my 20 year-old self thinks so, but I'm pretty sure 10 year-old me saw her as only a little troublemaker who came to her just desserts after each of her follies (minus the whipping of course...*shudders*...thanks goodness such practices are out of style now!).

The setting was an instant hit with me nonetheless; I LOVED that it was set in castle in France in the 19th century, and although I knew nothing of the time period and didn't know at first what a "bonne" was, or why Sophie always had to appear in the "salon" before going in to dinner, I quickly picked it up and started to develop my knowledge of how things worked back then. But now that I've read a bit more about that era, a few things struck me as odd upon this re-read.

*Although Sophie has a bonne (a nursemaid), there is never mention of a nursery. She is free to bounce in her mother's room, she eats with the grown-ups, meets the guests, overall does a great many things with her mother and is often without surveillance. Either the French had a different way of doing things, or the Comtesse wrote it like that to better illustrate certain points. Or maybe something else that eludes me.

*The language. Sophie is three years old at the start of the story, and four by the end, and she talks like this: "Quel mal veux-tu que j'ai fait? Tu n'as qu'à regarder; tu ne trouveras rien de mal. Je ne sais pas pourquoi tu dis que j'ai fait quelque chose de mal; tu as toujours des idées ridicules." which translates into "What wrongdoing would you think I have done? You have only to look; you shall find nothing wrong. I do not know why you say I have done something wrong; you always have ridiculous ideas." Her cousin Paul, who is only five, replies with "Comme tu te fâches! C'est une plaisanterie que j'ai faite. Je t'assure que je ne crois à aucune mauvaise action de ta part, et tu n'as pas besoin de me regarder d'un air si farouche.", which means "How you get angry! It was a jest I made. I assure you that I do not believe in any wrongdoing on your part, and you do not need to look at me with such a wild air." -- Now, either we have become unbelievably dimwitted now in the 21st century, and correct me if I'm wrong, but little kids do not talk like that. Three-year-olds are usually barely intelligible, and five-year-olds may talk well, but not eloquently.

*The amount of chores done by the masters of the house; M. et Mme de Réan are clearly affluent people who live in a castle full of servants, yet Mme de Réan often takes on duties that you would think would be left to the servants, like feeding the horses. It gave her a somewhat modern portrayal, coupled with her telling Sophie that it was okay not wear a hat and gloves outside, and letting her roam about the gardens like a wildcat, and bringing her on long walks with her.

*Moreover Mme de Réan also comes in the light of the authority of the house rather than her husband, who is barely present in the story. Although it makes sense that she be the one in charge of Sophie's education (she is probably too young for a governess yet) for now, it hinted at a certain modernism that clashed a little with the time period. Unless of course, I have it all wrong and the story takes place in the 1930's ;)

*Wait, but M. de Réan does do something...he gives Sophie a pocket-knife. Don't even ask me why...Needless to say they all regretted it soon enough.

I'm pretty sure that la Comtesse de Ségur meant all her books to be fun stories with strong morals, to encourage children to behave well and to demonstrate that filial obedience is/should be justly rewarded. I saw that when I was 10, and over the years as I re-read it, and I see it especially now, as I read it aloud to my youngest brother over the last week, in the hopes that he would be discouraged in further imitations of Sophie, whom he has unknowingly used as a role model any time these last 8 years. I tell you, he is the male version of little Sophie. So now that he's old enough, I've decided he could do with a good dose of la Comtesse de Ségur, but so far all it has served to do was to make him laugh out loud and decide he'd love to have many pets like Sophie did. *sigh*

Will have to keep trying by reading Les petites filles modèles next, which is the sequel to this one and which tells the story of GOOD little girls. Maybe that will have more of the desired effect ;)

Nevertheless I was so glad to do another re-read of this wonderful little book. It's priceless and just so fun!

*This one is also available in English, under the title Sophie's Misfortunes. Book 1 of the Fleurville trilogy (I believe all three books have been translated in English).

**There is even a TV series for kids that was made after this book -- I saw a few episodes some years ago and they were just like the book - delightful and so amusing.

Details Epithetical Books Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

Title	:	Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)
Author	:	Comtesse de Ségur
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 187 pages
Published	:	March 9th 2006 by Hachette (first published 1857)
Categories	:	Classics. Cultural. France. Childrens. Fiction

Rating Epithetical Books Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

Ratings: 3.91 From 3843 Users | 148 Reviews

Judge Epithetical Books Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

Great book

This book was... interesting, to say the least. It's a lot darker than most childrens books with many ( at least 5) animals being killed off. My problem is that Sophie did all sorts of naughty things and made all sorts of mistakes (perfectly normal is children's books) however, she never learnt.

This is a French classic, but it kind of made me a little sick. In the course of 214 pages, Sophie kills or witnesses get killed a bowl of fish, a bee, a squirrel, a cat, a bullfinch, a donkey and a tortoise. Every time an animal was introduced I knew it would be dead in a few pages. One or two I can understand, but this macabre procession of dead animals would have terrified me as a child. There is nothing good in Sophie, she's like the spawn of the devil. She constantly lies, fights, disobeys

A classic of short stories of 3 little girls in the French country side under the Second Empire. This is a trilogy. This book is great as the children can relate to the stories despite it being in a different time. It is a great way for children to learn about different times (link to History) and how people lived at the time. Sophie often gets told off by her mother for things that have happened to her rather than she has done which children relate to very well. It is funny and great to read to

am in the process of rereading this childhood book from "la bibliotheque rose"....interessant....dubious. its not the old fashion that bothers me as much as the obvious impossibilities for a 4 yr old. Either that or kids were a lot more mature in those days-which i kinda doubt

Crazy wonderful book that puts the "sick" into "Classic"!! How on earth was this ever considered appropriate for children? Our heroine Sophy's bizarre sociopathic behavior is matched only by her mother and nanny's denial. This book can be found in English if you look hard for it. Not to be missed!

It was my first book in French, and I'm just happy that I was able to understand it. :) About Sophie: I don't know if I should laugh at or be horrified by this child. It is a cute novel anyway. Good for kids, future parents (to get prepared) and those who would like to practice French.