Chastenay, Victorine de (1771–1855)

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Chastenay, Victorine de (1771–1855)

French musician, memoirist and essayist. Name variations: Madame de Chastenay; Louise-Marie Victorine de Chastenay de Lenty; Louise Marie Victorine de Lanty; Comtesse de Chastenay or countess of Chastenay. Born Louise-Marie Victorine de Chastenay de Lenty in 1771; died in 1855; dau. of Erard Louis Guil de Lenty (1748–1830), comte de Chastenay, and Catherine Louise d'Herbouville; sister of Henri Louis de Lenty (b. 1772), comte de Chastenay; never married.

Noblewoman, imprisoned during the Reign of Terror and later known as citoyenne Victorine, wrote Mémoires and works of botany and history, including Calandrier de Flore (1802–03), Du génie de peuples anciens (1808), Les Chevaliers normands en Italie et en Sicile (1816) and De l'Asie (1833); trans. Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Oliver Goldsmith's The Deserted Village.