Author #1: Henri Ardel

Yes, I know. Henri Ardel doesn't look like an "Henri," but there's a good reason for that.

 

To begin, Henri Ardel is really Berthe Abraham. She began using a pseudonym when she began publishing her works in 1893 and chose to hold onto it until her last published book in 1934. The choice to publish under a pseudonym was not uncommon for women during this time period. 

 

Why, you might ask?

 

Well, when it came to writing, this world was considered a place for men and for men to sell work, not women. Over the years, various female writers have chosen to embrace male or gender-ambiguous pen names in order to overcome that pesky obstacle of a feminine name and to attract a wider readership. Perhaps you’ll recognize the women behind the following pseudonyms:  Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, George Eliot, Arthur Stone/Chris Hansen/Andy Stack, and J.K. Rowling. As you can see, some are easier to spot than others.

 

As for Henri Ardel, there isn’t much information out there concerning her life. In all, she wrote 30 books. Even during a time like the late 1890s up to the start of World War I, when the more permissive atmosphere in France was encouraging experimental and even radical works, Ardel stuck to a more conservative, bourgeois style of writing. While writing under her male pseudonym, she was considered to be an author of “sentimental novels for ladies.” Many of these were published by Plon, a French publishing company that has since been dissolved by the Editis Group. As far as I can tell, not many of her books have been translated into English, but then only those published before 1930 would be in the public domain (there is a 95-year cut off for works published before 1978).

 

What little can be gleaned concerning the life of Ardel is simply summed up in her Wikipedia page:

 

Berthe Marie Victorine Palmyre Abraham was born in Amiens on 6 June 1863. Her parents, Lucie Mathilde Pillier and Alphonse Abraham. She lived in Enghien, then Paris. His sister, Marie-Louise, born May 10, 1877, married Georges Le Cordier; a writer herself, she took the pseudonym "Colette Henri-Ardel" after Berthe's death. Bertha was a teacher in a class for young girls. She made her literary debut by sending a short story to Léon de Tinseau [fr] who encouraged her. One of the many female writers who took a male pseudonym,^[1] she was author of "sentimental novels for ladies" published by Plon, in the Stella collection or in the Nelson collection.^[2]These novels were very successful:—^[3]

"In 1933, Cœur de sceptique was in its 100th edition, Le mal d'aimer, in its 125th, Mon cousin Guy, in its 181st. There is hardly anyone but Pierre Benoit to match such figures."

During the last ten years of her life, Ardel was involved in a charity to help poor children and to catechize them.^[4]

She died on 6 January 1938,^[5] and is buried in the Montreuil cemetery in Versailles.

She did win a couple of awards for her work:  the Prix Botta for Cœur de sceptique (probably considered her most well-known book) in 1894 and the Ordre des Palmes académiques in 1904.

I spent an obsessive amount of time trying to find better and more information on Ardel, but there just isn’t much out there. I figured that 30 books wasn’t too shabby for a female writer during this time frame, but after translating the work I’ve chosen, I can see how that perhaps her writing just wasn’t up to standing the test of time in such an intense, literary-packed world. If anyone would like to add to what I’ve found that would be very beneficial. Feel free to add the links in the chat.

In my next post, I’ll delve into the book I’ve chosen, which, as far as I can tell, was published in 1914. I can talk more about my confusion on that one in the next post. 

Until then, I’ll leave you with lists of books that were published in 1913 and 1914 and you can see if you recognize any of them or if you’ve read some of them.

Otherwise, Ciao for now!

 

*Books published in 1913

*Books published in 1914