Marie Franchise Sophie Gay, a French novelist, born in Paris, July 1, 1776, died March 5, 1852. She was the daughter of a French financier named Nichault de la Valette, and was married in 1793 to M. Liottier, from whom she was divorced in 1799. She then became the wife of M. Gay, receiver general of finance in the department of Roer, under the empire, and accompanied him to Aix-la-Chapelle, its capital, where she resided ten years. She was remarkable for her wit, agreeable manners, and social disposition, and her house at Aix-la-Chapelle, at Paris after her return thither, and at Versailles, where she passed the last few years of her life, was the resort of literary and fashionable society. As early as 1802 she published anonymously in the Journal de Paris an article upon Mme. de Stael, and in the same year her first novel, Laure (d 'Estell, which had a moderate success. In 1813 she published Leonie de Monibreuse, which is considered one of her best novels. This was succeeded in 1815 by Anatole, which narrates the loves of a deaf mute, and in 1818 by Les malheurs d'un amant heureux, a very lively picture of manners during the empire.

She continued to produce novels and books of various sorts until a few years before her death, among them Les souvenirs (Pune vieille femme, a piquant abstract of her personal memoirs. She wrote unsuccessfully for the stage.