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Marguerite Audoux (French pronunciation: [maʁɡəʁitodu] ; 7 July 1863 in Sancoins, Cher – 31 January 1937 in Saint-Raphaël, Var) was a French novelist.
Marguerite Donquichote, who took her mother's name, Audoux, in 1895, was orphaned by age three, following the death of her mother and abandonment by her father. She and her sister Madeleine initially lived with an aunt but ultimately spent nine years in the orphanage at Bourges. In 1877, Andoux was put to work as a shepherdess and farm worker in the region of Sologne. There, she fell in love with a local boy, Henri Dejoulx, but his parents would not permit them to marry.
Audoux moved to Paris in 1881. Desperately poor, she found occasional work as a seamstress and made ends meet with whatever menial labour could be found. She bore a stillborn child in 1883; the difficult pregnancy and labour left her permanently sterile.
In Paris, she took custody of her niece, Yvonne. It was Yvonne who at age sixteen inadvertently set in motion her aunt's literary career: Yvonne, while prostituting herself (without Audoux's knowledge) in the Parisian neighbourhood of the Halles, met a young man named Jules Iehl. Iehl, who also wrote under the pen name Michel Yell, was moved by the young woman's impossible situation and accompanied her home, where he met Audoux. Iehl and Audoux would remain romantically involved until 1912.
Yell introduced Audoux to the Parisian intelligentsia—a group that included Charles-Louis Philippe, Léon-Paul Fargue, Léon Werth and Francis Jourdain. He also encouraged her to write her memoirs. The memoirs fell into the hands of the celebrated author Octave Mirbeau and proved so compelling that Mirbeau immediately arranged to have them published.
Though success and critical acclaim followed quickly on the heels of the December 1910 publication of Audoux's memoirs, her next book was ten years in the making. The Studio of Marie-Claire, published in 1920, was merely a modest success; none of her subsequent novels--From the Mill to the Town (1926), The Fiancee (1932), and finally Soft Light, (1937)--matched the success of her bestseller debut.
After her death in January 1937, the novelist was buried in Saint-Raphaël, not far from the ocean she loved.
Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde with highly transgressive novels that explored violence, abuse and psychological detachment. His work has been translated into 30 languages.
Marguerite Yourcenar was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist who became a US citizen in 1947. Winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie Française, in 1980. In 1965, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Daisy Fellowes was a prominent French socialite, acclaimed beauty, minor novelist and poet, Paris editor of American Harper's Bazaar, fashion icon, and an heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune.
The Miser is a five-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed on September 9, 1668, in the theatre of the Palais-Royal in Paris.
The Lady of the Camellias, sometimes called Camille in English, is a novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. First published in 1848 and subsequently adapted by Dumas for the stage, the play premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France, on February 2, 1852. It was an instant success. Shortly thereafter, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi set about putting the story to music in the 1853 opera La traviata, with female protagonist Marguerite Gautier renamed Violetta Valéry.
Demi-monde is a French 19th-century term referring to women on the fringes of respectable society, and specifically to courtesans supported by wealthy lovers. The term is French for "half-world", and derives from an 1855 play called Le Demi-Monde, by Alexandre Dumas fils, dealing with the way that prostitution at that time threatened the institution of marriage. The demi-monde was the world occupied by elite men and the women who entertained them and whom they kept.
Claude Autant-Lara was a French film director, screenwriter, set designer and costume designer who worked in films for over 50 years. His career was frequently marked by controversy, and in his late 80s he was elected to the European Parliament as a member for the far-right French National Front.
Lise Deharme was a French writer associated with the Surrealist movement.
Baroness Suzanne Lilar was a Flemish Belgian essayist, novelist, and playwright writing in French. She was the wife of the Belgian Minister of Justice Albert Lilar and mother of the writer Françoise Mallet-Joris and the art historian Marie Fredericq-Lilar.
Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, comtesse de Grignan, was a French aristocrat, remembered for the letters that her mother, Madame de Sévigné, wrote to her.
Anne-Marie Garat was a French novelist. She won the Prix Femina for her novel Aden in 1992 and the Prix Marguerite-Audoux for her novel Les mal famées.
Louise de Maisonblanche, was a French noblewoman, the illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV, King of France and his mistress, Claude de Vin des Œillets. She became the Baroness of La Queue by her marriage to Bernard de Prez.
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling is a novel by Marguerite Young. She has described it as "an exploration of the illusions, hallucinations, errors of judgment in individual lives, the central scene of the novel being an opium addict's paradise."
Claire Castillon, born May 25, 1975, in Boulogne-Billancourt (France), is a French writer. She writes novels, short stories and children's books.
Pierre de Cossé, 12th Duke of Brissac, was a French aristocrat and author who wrote historical memoirs. He held the French noble title of Duke of Brissac from 1944 to 1993. His father-in-law was Eugène Schneider II, while Maurice Herzog was his son-in-law.
Émilie-Louise Delabigne, known as countess Valtesse de La Bigne was a French courtesan and demi-mondaine. Although born to a working-class family in Paris, she rose through the social ranks and was a supporter of painters, while creating a space for women to participate in the art world through her collecting and Salon.
Marguerite Borel known as Camille MarbonéeMarguerite Appell, was a 20th-century French writer, president and laureate of the Prix Femina in 1913 and president of the Société des gens de lettres.
Karine Tuil is a French novelist who has written several award-winning novels in French and English. Her works have themes ranging from marriage and Jewish identity to detention centers and corporate politics.
Anne Berest is a French writer and actress.
Blanche Adeline Pierson was a French actress most notably known for her portrayal of Marguerite Gautier in "The Lady of the Camellias".