Octave Feuillet (11 July 1821 – 29 December 1890) was a French novelist and dramatist. His work stands midway between the romanticists and the realists. He is renowned for his "distinguished and lucid portraiture of life", 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 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.
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.
