*BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE*
Octave Feuillet was born at Saint-Lo, in the department of the Manche,
on the 11th of August, 1821. His father, who belonged to one of the
oldest Norman families, was secretary-general to the prefect, and a
little later, in the revolution of 1830, played a prominent part in
politics. A hereditary nervousness, amounting finally to a disease,
alone prevented him, according to Guizot, from being given a portfolio
in the new ministry. Octave inherited his father's excessive
sensibility, although in later years he held it more under control.
After the death of his mother, which occurred as he was developing in
boyhood, he became so melancholy that, at the advice of the physicians,
he was sent to a school in Paris, where his health gradually became
re-established; afterward, at the College de Louis-le-Grand, he greatly
distinguished himself as a scholar. It was his father's design to
prepare him for the diplomatic career, but already the desire to write
had awakened itself in him. When the moment came for choosing a
profession, Octave timidly confessed his determination to make
literature his business in life; the irascible old gentleman at Saint-Lo
turned him out of the house, and cut off his allowance. He returned to
Paris, and for three years had a hard struggle with poverty. During
this time, under the encouragement of the great actor Bocage, Octave
Feuillet brought out three dramas, "Echec et Mat," "Palma," and "La
Vieillesse de Richelieu," under the pseudonym of "Desire Hazard." These
were successful, and the playwright's father forgave and welcomed him
back to his favour. Octave remained in Paris, actively engaged in
literary work, mainly dramatic, but gradually in the line of prose
fiction also. In 1846 he published his novel of "Polichinelle,"
followed in 1848 by "Onesta," in 1849 by "Redemption" and in 1850 by
"Bellah." None of these are remembered among Octave Feuillet's best
works, but he was gaining skill and care in composition. In 1850,
however, he was suddenly summoned home to Saint-Lo by the increased
melancholy of his father, who could no longer safely be left alone in
the gloomy ancestral mansion which he refused to leave. Octave, with
resignation, determined to sacrifice his life to the care of his father,
and in this piety he was supported by his charming cousin, Valerie
Feuillet, a very accomplished and devoted woman, whom he married in
1851. For eight years they shared this painful exile, the father of
Octave scarcely permitting them to leave his sight, and refusing every
other species of society. Strangely enough, this imprisonment was not
unfavourable to the novelist's genius; the books he wrote during this
period--"Dalila," "La Petite Comtesse" (1856), "Le Village," and finally
"Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre" (1858)--being not only far superior
to what he had previously published, but among the very finest of all
his works. By a grim coincidence, on almost the only occasion on which
Octave Feuillet ventured to absent himself for a day or two, to be
present at the performance of his "Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre," when
it was dramatized in 1858, the father suddenly died while the son was in
Paris. This was a great shock to Feuillet, who bitterly and unjustly
condemned himself. He was now, however, free, and, with his wife and
children, he returned to Paris. He was now very successful, and soon
became a figure at Compiegne and in the great world. In 1862 he
published "Sibylle," and was elected a member of the French Academy. A
great favourite of the Emperor and Empress, he was tempted to combine
the social life at Court with the labours of literature. His health
began to suffer from the strain, and, to recover, he retired again to
Saint-Lo, where he lived, not in the home of his ancestors, but in a
little house above the ramparts, called Les Paillers; for the future he
spent only the winter months in Paris. His novels became fewer, but not
less carefully prepared; he enjoyed a veritable triumph with "Monsieur
de Camors" in 1867. Next year he was appointed Royal Librarian at
Fontainbleu, an office which he held till the fall of the Empire. He
then retired to Les Paillers again, where he had written "Julia de
Trecoeur" in 1867. The end of his life was troubled by domestic
bereavement and loss of health; he hurried restlessly from place to
place, a prey to constant nervous agitation. His later writings were
numerous, but had not the vitality of those previously mentioned.
Octave Feuillet died in Paris, December 28, 1890, and was succeeded at
the French Academy by Pierre Loti. Octave was the type of a sensitive,
somewhat melancholy fine gentleman; he was very elegant in manners,
reserved and ceremonious in society, where he held himself somewhat
remote in the radiance of his delicate wit; but within the bosom of his
family he was tenderly and almost pathetically demonstrative. The least
criticism was torture to him, and it is said that when his comedy of "La
Belle au Bois Dormant" was hissed off the boards of the Vaudeville in
1865, for three weeks afterward the life of Feuillet was in danger.
Fortunately, however, for a "fiery particle" so sensitive, the greater
part of his career was one continuous triumph.