Octave Feuillet

2025-09-18T15:19:08Z

2A00:23C6:AE82:5D01:484C:F461:8BE8:24BF:

{{Short description|French novelist and dramatist (1821–1890)}}
[[File:Octave Feuillet woodburytype.jpg|thumb|right|Feuillet taken by [[Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon]] circa 1870s]]
{{French literature sidebar}}

'''Octave Feuillet''' (11 July 1821 – 29 December 1890) was a French [[novelist]] and [[dramatist]].<ref name="Almanac2011">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Octave Feuillet |encyclopedia=Almanac of Famous People |year=2011 |publisher=Gale |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1601040533/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=b76a0cfa |access-date=2022-10-29 }}</ref><ref name="Webster1995">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Octave Feuillet |encyclopedia=Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary |year=1995 |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Inc. |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1680102903/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=fc6427d0 |access-date=2022-10-29 }}</ref> His work stands midway between the [[Romanticism|romanticists]] and the [[Literary realism|realists]]. He is renowned for his "distinguished and lucid portraiture of life",<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Feuillet, Octave|volume=10|pages=304–305|first=Edmund|last=Gosse|author-link=Edmund Gosse}}</ref> depictions of female characters, analyses of characters' psychologies and feelings, and his reserved but witty prose style. His most popular work remains his 1858 novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'' (''The Story of a Poor Young Man''), which has been adapted for film many times by Italian, French, and Argentinian directors.

== Biography==
Feuillet was born at [[Saint-Lô]], [[Manche]] ([[Normandy]]). His father, Jacques Feuillet, was a prominent lawyer and Secretary-General of [[Manche|La Manche]], but also a hypersensitive invalid. His mother died when he was an infant. Feuillet inherited some of his father's nervous excitability, though not to the same degree. He was sent to [[Lycée Louis-le Grand]] in [[Paris]], where he achieved high distinction, assuring him of a good post in the diplomatic service.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1840 he rejected his father's longtime wish that he be a diplomat and told him he planned to be a writer instead. His father disowned him. Octave Feuillet returned to Paris and lived as best he could by becoming a journalist. He collaborated with [[Paul Bocage]] on the plays ''Echec et mat,'' ''Palma, ou la nuit de Vendredi saint,'' and ''La Vieillesse de Richelieu''. His father forgave him three years later and granted him an allowance, giving him a comfortable existence while he remained in the capital. There he wrote his first novels and got them published.

Jacques Feuillet's health declined further, and he summoned his son to care for him at Saint-Lô. It was a real sacrifice to leave Paris and the outlet it gave Octave Feuillet for his career, but he obeyed. His father's mania for solitude and tyrannical temper made life in Saint-Lô very stressful. However, in 1851, Octave married his cousin [[Valérie Feuillet|Valérie Dubois]], who was also a writer. During what he considered his "exile" in Saint-Lô, Feuillet produced some of his best work. His first major success came in 1852, when he published the novel ''Bellah'' and produced the comedy ''La Crise''. Both were reprinted from the ''[[Revue des deux mondes]]'', where many of his later novels also appeared. Other acclaimed works written in Saint-Lô were ''La Petite Comtesse'' (1857), ''Dalila'' (1857), and the popular ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'' (1858).<ref name="EB1911"/>

Seemingly repeating his father's life, Feuillet himself grew ill at Saint-Lô with a more severe nervous condition, but his wife and mother-in-law helped sustain him. In 1857, he was able to return to Paris for a brief period to oversee the rehearsal of a play he had adapted from his novel ''Dalila.'' The following year, he did the same when ''Un jeune homme pauvre'' was rehearsing. While he was in the capital, his father died.

Feuillet and his family immediately moved to Paris, where he became a favorite at the court of the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]]. His pieces were performed at [[Compiègne]] before they were given to the public, and on one occasion the [[Empress Eugénie]] played the part of Madame de Pons in ''Les Portraits de la Marquise''.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1862 he achieved another great success with his novel ''Sibylle''. His health, however, had begun to decline, further impacted by the death of his eldest son. He returned to the quiet of [[Normandy]] but not to the Feuillet family chateau, which had been sold years earlier. He bought a house called Les Paillers in the suburbs of Saint-Lô, where he lived, hidden among the numerous rosebushes and their blooms that obsessed him, for fifteen years.<ref name="EB1911"/>

== Honors, final years, and death ==

In 1862, Feuillet was elected to the [[Académie française]]. Two years later he was made librarian of [[Fontainebleau]] Palace, where he had to live for a month or two each year to get the stipend accompanying the position.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1867 he produced his masterpiece, ''Monsieur de Camors'', and in 1872 he wrote ''Julia de Trécœur''. 1886 saw the publication of ''La Morte'', to which influential literary critic [[Walter Pater]] devoted a chapter of praise and analysis in his 1889 essay collection, ''Appreciations''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pater |first=Walter |title=Appreciations |date=1889 |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |type=Library Edition |location=London |publication-date=1918 |pages=219–240 |language=en}}</ref> After the sale of Les Paillers, Feuillet spent his last years as a nomad owing to depression and other health problems.<ref name="EB1911"/> Not long after the publication of his final book, ''Honneur d'artiste'', he died in Paris on 29 December 1890.

==Filmography==
*''{{Interlanguage link|L'ultimo dei Frontignac|fr|3=Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre (film, 1911)|lt=L'ultimo dei Frontignac}}'', directed by [[Mario Caserini]] (Italy, 1911, short film, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''Un Roman Parisien'', directed by {{Interlanguage link|Adrien Caillard|fr}} (France, 1913, short film, based on the play ''[[A Parisian Romance (play)|Un Roman Parisien]]'')
*''{{Interlanguage link|A Parisian Romance (1916 film)|it|3=A Parisian Romance|lt=A Parisian Romance}}'', directed by [[Frederick A. Thomson]] (1916, based on the play ''Un Roman Parisien'')
*''Honneur d'artiste'', directed by [[Jean Kemm]] (France, 1917, based on the novel ''Honneur d'artiste'')
*''[[The Lord of Hohenstein]]'', directed by [[Richard Oswald]] (Germany, 1917, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''Hier et aujourd'hui'', directed by {{Interlanguage link|Dominique Bernard-Deschamps|fr}} (France, 1918, based on the play ''La Belle au bois dormant'')
*''Júlia'', directed by [[Alfréd Deésy]] (Hungary, 1918, based on the play ''Julie'')
*''{{Interlanguage link|Vdova|it|3=La vedova (film 1918)|lt=Vdova}}'', directed by [[Theodore Komisarjevsky]] (Russia, 1918, based on the novel ''La Veuve'')
*''Dalila'', directed by {{Interlanguage link|Guglielmo Braconcini|it}} (Italy, 1919, based on the play ''Dalila'')
*''[[The Shadow (1920 film)|The Shadow]]'', directed by [[Roberto Roberti]] (Italy, 1920)
*''[[The Story of a Poor Young Man (1920 film)|The Story of a Poor Young Man]]'', directed by [[Amleto Palermi]] (Italy, 1920, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''[[The Sphinx (1920 film)|The Sphinx]]'', directed by [[Roberto Roberti]] (Italy, 1920, based on the play ''Le Sphinx'')
*''Giulia di Trécoeur'', directed by [[Camillo De Riso]] (Italy, 1921, based on the novel ''Julia de Trécœur'')
*''{{Interlanguage link|Story of a Poor Young Man (1927 film)|es|3=Le roman d'un jeune homme pauvre (película de 1927)|lt=Story of a Poor Young Man}}'', directed by [[Gaston Ravel]] (Germany/France, 1927, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''[[A Parisian Romance (film)|A Parisian Romance]]'', directed by [[Chester M. Franklin]] (1932, based on the play ''Un Roman Parisien'')
*''{{Interlanguage link|Story of a Poor Young Man (1935 film)|fr|3=Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre (film, 1935)|lt=Story of a Poor Young Man}}'', directed by [[Abel Gance]] (France, 1935, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''[[Story of a Poor Young Man (1942 film)|Story of a Poor Young Man]]'', directed by [[Luis Bayón Herrera]] (Argentina, 1942, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''{{Interlanguage link|Story of a Poor Young Man (1942 Italian film)|it|3=Romanzo di un giovane povero (film 1942)|lt=Story of a Poor Young Man}}'', directed by [[Guido Brignone]] (Italy, 1942, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''{{Interlanguage link|Story of a Poor Young Man (1958 film)|it|3=Il romanzo di un giovane povero (film 1958)|lt=Story of a Poor Young Man}}'', directed by [[Cesare Canevari]] (Italy, 1958, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''[[Story of a Poor Young Man (1968 film)|Story of a Poor Young Man]]'', directed by [[Enrique Cahen Salaberry]] (Argentina, 1968, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')
*''{{Interlanguage link|Story of a Poor Young Man (1974 film)|it|3=Il romanzo di un giovane povero (film 1974)|lt=Story of a Poor Young Man}}'', directed by [[Cesare Canevari]] (Italy, 1974, based on the novel ''Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre'')


== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1342| name=Octave Feuillet}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Octave Feuillet}}

{{Académie française Seat 13}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Feuillet, Octave}}
[[Category:1821 births]]
[[Category:1890 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Saint-Lô]]
[[Category:Writers from Manche]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:19th-century French novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:French male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:French male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni]]
[[Category:19th-century French journalists]]
[[Category:French male journalists]]

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Octave Feuillet