LETTRES INÉDITES DE LA COMTESSE D’ALBANY À LA DUCHESSE DE DEVONSHIRE. « Je n’ai besoin que d’etre libre, et independante »

Tireless letter writer and accomplished salonnière, Louise de Stolberg Gedern (1752-1824), countess of Albany, chose French to correspond with the European elite of her time. This article focuses on eighteen unpublished letters spanning from 1816 to 1819. They are addressed to Elisabeth Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire (1758-1824), a writer who was also a brilliant salonnière and an assiduous letter writer. These letters give evidence of the vitality of French as a lingua franca during the transition between a French-dominated Europe and the emergence of the nation-states of Europe. Furthermore, these autographs attest the complex nature of the private letter in the 19th century. Starting from these remarks, we first introduce the countess of Albany and her bond with the duchess of Devonshire. Then, we examine the orthographic peculiarities of these letters from countess of Albany’s later years. Finally, after exploring their register and code-switching, these letters are studied as ego-documents where self-writing, personal confidences, and personal reflections go hand in hand with with observations of political events, literary news, family affairs and society news. Finally, we provide some concluding remarks.