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

Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

Comtesse de Ségur

Paperback | Pages: 187 pages

Rating: 3.91 | 3843 Users | 148 Reviews

Explanation To Books Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

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.

Be Specific About Books Concering Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

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

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

Ratings: 3.91 From 3843 Users | 148 Reviews

Column Containing Books Les Malheurs de Sophie (Fleurville #1)

To be honest, I read this book because it was written by the Comtesse de Ségur and I felt like a cultural duty to read one of her book. Maybe it was a mistake. I ended up pretty disappointed by Les Malheurs de Sophie. Keeping in mind the fact that it is a children's book, I can't stop myself from thinking that it was way too redundant. So much that it makes me feel kind of frustrated most of the time. The same stories happen all over again with the same horribly predictable conclusion.

I am not an overly-active animal activist but there is a little girl who needs a 'special care' and love to kill animals unintentially as a main character. Henceforth, i literally hate it. This book is the single one that i will never let a child to read. The author was described as a naughty girl and all of the stories are from her childhood. But i am pretty sure she was not just a naughty little human. A psychiatric case i guess. Some books should not be classified as a classic because of

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

Sophie's Misfortunes is a French children's classic. Sophie is four and is always disobeying her mother. With terrible results. Especially for animals.This was an awful translation. Especially awful were the incorrect pronouns. I only know a little French, but I think I could have done better than this.Nevertheless, it's the first time I've found an English translation. I suppose it's better than nothing.Of course it's on the 1001 Children's Book list.

So French and perhaps a little old-fashioned, but refreshingly so. Sophie is always getting up to mischief, and it's delightful reading about it!

My love of reading came from these books!

My edition of this rather delightful book is dated 1892 and was once owned by an Aileen Frank at Miss Burke's School. Given to me by a friend back in 1971 or 1972, and carried from house to house until its more-than-a-century-old binding is in tatters, I finally got around to reading Les Malheurs de Sophie.Les Malheurs de Sophie is a 19th century French children's book, not a novel but rather a series of episodes intended to instruct. These are moral lessons, though much more amusing and less