AGOULT, MARIE (-CATHERINE-SOPHIE) DE FLAVIGNY, COMTESSE D'

( (countess of), ) born Dec. 31, 1805, Frankfurt am Main died March 5, 1876, Paris pseudonym Daniel Stern writer famous for her position in Parisian society in the 1840s and for her liaison with the composer Franz Liszt. Mme d'Agoult was the daughter of the migr Comte de Flavigny. In 1827 she married Col. Charles d'Agoult, 20 years her senior. She had early shown strength of will and enthusiasm for justice and freedom, and her marriage disappointed her expectations. Meeting Franz Liszt, she decided in 1834 to run away with him. Their relationship lasted till 1839, when Liszt felt that his musical career prevented a settled life. Their separation became permanent in 1844. Their daughter Cosima was the second wife of the composer Richard Wagner. Returning to Paris in 1839, Mme d'Agoult began her career as a writer and in 1846 published a largely autobiographical novel, Nlida. She was a close friend of George Sand, whose views on morals, politics, and society she shared and in whose house she had lived for a time with Liszt. She also became the leader of a salon where the ideas that culminated in the Revolution of 1848 were discussed by the outstanding writers, thinkers, and musicians of the day. Her own writings included Lettres rpublicaines (1848); Histoire de la rvolution de 1848 (185053); a play, Jeanne d'Arc (1857); a dialogue, Dante et Goethe (1866); and Mes Souvenirs 18061833 (1877), supplemented by Mmoires, 18331854 (1927), interesting for the light they throw on the social, literary, and musical circles of her time.