Resurrecting Jane de La Vaudere: Literary Shapeshifter of the Belle Epoque

This engrossing narrative recounts the story of Jane de La Vaudere (nee Jeanne Scrive), a prolific and celebrated writer of France’s Belle Epoque. Interweaving biography and literary analysis, Sharon Larson examines the ways in which La Vaudere adapted her persona to shifting literary trends and readership demands―and how she created and profited from controversy.

Relatively unknown today, La Vaudere published more than forty novels, poetry collections, and dramatic works as well as hundreds of shorter pieces. A controversial figure who was known as a plagiarist, La Vaudere attracted the attention of the public and of her peers, who caricatured her in literary periodicals and romans a clef. Most notably, La Vaudere claimed to have written the Reve d’Egypte pantomime, whose 1907 production at the Moulin Rouge featured a kiss between Missy and Colette that led to riots and the suspension of future performances. Larson scrutinizes the ensemble of these various media constructions, privileging La Vaudere’s self-representation in interviews and advertisements, and brings to light her agency in creating an image that captivated public attention and boosted sales of her writings.

This volume probes the quandaries of scholarship seeking to responsibly recover lost female voices and makes a long-overdue contribution to nineteenth-century French literary studies.