Victoire Babois

Victoire Babois, also known as Victoire-Magueritte Babois (6 October 1760 – 18 March 1839), was a French poet and writer of elegies. Married in 1780, she suffered tragedy when her five-year-old daughter Blanche died in 1792. This experience led her to write an elegy to her daughter, which, encouraged by her uncle Jean-François Ducis, she published in 1804. The collection of poems was reprinted six times in the following six years, and influenced other French poets, including Marceline Desbordes-Valmore and Alphonse de Lamartine. She published other collections of elegies, including political works that commented on contemporary events like the Napoleonic Wars. She died on 8 March 1839 and is buried in Paris.