Sophie is a mischievous little girl who lives with her parents, Monsieur and Madame de Réan.

The success of Sophie's Misfortunes has been constant through the years and still goes on today; the book has been republished many times.

Vladimir Nabokov alluded to it in his novel Ada (1969), making up a novel called Sophie's Sophisms [Les Sophismes de Sophie] by a so-called "Miss Stopchin", as well Les Malheurs de Swann, a title which combines Countess of Ségur and Marcel Proust.

In the United Kingdom, the book was used as reference material to teach young girls French translation (boys would be trained using L'Histoire d'un conscrit de 1813, written by Erckmann-Chatrian).

The book has inspired numerous film and television adaptations, including: