Hermine Oudinot Lecomte du Noüy

Hermine Lecomte du Noüy (née Oudinot; pen names, L'auteur d'Amitié amoureuse and Pierre Guérande; Paris, 1854 - Paris, 1915) was a French writer.

Early life

Hermine-Augustine-Eugénie Oudinot was born on 10 March 1854 in Paris. Her father was the stained glass painter Eugène-Stanislas Oudinot. Her sister, Camille Oudinot, was a novelist and playwright.

Career

Lecomte made her literary debut in 1896, with the novel Amitié amoureuse (Love friendship), which was a success. She signed much of her other works with the signature "L'auteur d'Amitié amoureuse" (author of Love friendship) and also used the pseudonym "Pierre Guérande". Her other works include titles such as L'Amour est un péché (Love is a Sin), Désobéissance criminelle (Criminal Disobedience), and Le Doute plus fort que l'Amour (Doubt Stronger than Love) (1900). In collaboration with Maurice de Waleffe she was the author of the novel Mater dolorous (Mother of pain) (1901), Maudit soit l'amour (Cursed be love) (1901), and Hésitation sentimentale (Sentimental hesitation) (1901); with Henri Amic she wrote En regardant passer la vie (Watching life go by) (1903), La Joie d'aimer (The Joy of Loving) (1904), Les serments ont des ailes (Oaths have wings) (1904), and Jours passés (Days gone by) (1908); with Jean de Fossendal, she was the author of L'amour guette (Love is lurking) (1908); and with B. Moyra of La Route interrompue (The Interrupted Road), a novel translated from English.

Personal life

In his biography of Maupassant, Henri Troyat notes that Lecomte lived in Étretat in a house called "La Bicoque", next to that of Maupassant, and that he often visited her, but that there is no evidence of a more in-depth relationship. However, Troyat writes, "Maupassant would take such a place in her life that, much later, she would evoke their meeting in a novel published anonymously, Amitié amoureuse (Love friendship) and in a work of memories, En regarde passer la vi (Watching life go by). She later lived in her private mansion at 30 Boulevard Flandrin in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which has since been destroyed.