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Sophie was born to a family with military connections at Major General rank. Her father was
Brigadier General, Jean-Baptiste Maximilien Joseph Antoine, baron Lecat de Bazancourt and
she was a prominent member of a society family.
At age 22, she married Francois d'Arbouville who rose to Lieutenant General in 1847. She
accompanied him on his campaigns until those in Africa led her to return to the gentler
climate of Paris where she became a society hostess. Despite her somewhat severe features,
she was known as a great conversationalist who charmed her audiences. She wrote poetry
which was, at first, published without her consent and she was highly regarded by
literary figures of the age such as Sainte-Beuve and Lamartine.
In her later years, her health never having been robust, she sought relief in the spas of the
South of France but returned to Paris where, after a long illness, she died of cancer at
age 39.
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