née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Lambert; 4 October 1836 – 23 August 1936) was a French author and feminist.
Life and career
Juliette Adam was born in
Verberie
Verberie () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France.
It lies southwest of Compiègne on the main road to Senlis and Paris. The railway station is on the line from Compiègne to Crépy-en-Valois. The inhabitants are known as ''Sa ...
(
Oise
Oise ( ; ; pcd, Oése) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 ...
). She gave an account of her childhood, rendered unhappy by the dissensions of her parents, in ''Le roman de mon enfance et de ma jeunesse'' (Eng. trans., London and New York, 1902). Her father is described in ''Paradoxes d'un docteur allemand'' (published 1860), which shows him to have been sympathetic to
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
.
In 1852, she married a doctor named La Messine, and published in 1858 her ''Idées antiproudhoniennes sur l'amour, la femme et le mariage'', in defense of Daniel Stern (pen name of
Marie d'Agoult
Marie Cathérine Sophie, Comtesse d'Agoult (née de Flavigny; 31 December 18055 March 1876), was a Franco-German romantic author and historian, known also by her pen name, Daniel Stern.
Life
Marie was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with th ...
) and
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
.
After her first husband's death in 1867, Juliette married Antoine Edmond Adam (1816–1877),
prefect
Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area.
A prefect's ...
of police in 1870, who subsequently became life-senator. She established a salon which was frequented by Gambetta and the other republican leaders against the conservative reaction of the 1870s. In the same interest, she founded the ''Nouvelle Revue'' in 1879, which she edited for eight years, and retained influence its administration until 1899. She published writings by
Paul Bourget
Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (; 2 September 185225 December 1935) was a French poet, novelist and critic. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.
Life
Paul Bourget was born in Amiens in the Somme ''département'' of P ...
,
Pierre Loti
Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica El ...
, and
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
as well as
Octave Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the ...
's novel ''Le Calvaire''.
She became involved in the ''Avant-Courrière'' (Forerunner) association founded in 1893 by
Jeanne Schmahl
Jeanne Elizabeth Schmahl (née Archer; 1846–1915) was a French feminism, feminist, born in Britain. She married a well-off husband who supported her while she worked as a midwife's assistant in Paris. She decided to avoid politics and religion ...
, which called for the right of women to be witnesses in public and private acts, and for the right of married women to take the product of their labor and dispose of it freely.
Adam became close friends with Yuliana Glinka, who was devoted to
theosophy
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
and the
occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
.
Adam wrote the notes on foreign politics, and was unremitting in her attacks on Bismarck and in her advocacy of a policy of
Revanchism
Revanchism (french: revanchisme, from ''revanche'', "revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. As a term, revanchism originated in 1870s Fr ...
. She is generally credited with the authorship of papers on various European capitals signed "Paul Vasili," which were, in reality, the work of various writers. The most famous of her numerous novels is ''Païenne'' (1883). Her reminiscences, ''Mes premières armes littéraires et politiques'' (1904) and ''Mes sentiments et nos idées avant'' 1870 (1905), contain much interesting gossip about her distinguished contemporaries.
In 1882, she purchased the estate of an abbey in
Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette (, literally ''Gif on Yvette'') is a commune in south-western Ile de France, France. It is located from the center of Paris.
Geography
The town is crossed by and named after the river Yvette.
The total area is and is green sp ...
(
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Callian (
Var
Var or VAR may refer to:
Places
* Var (department), a department of France
* Var (river), France
* Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran
* Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...
) in 1936.
Selected works
* ''Idées antiproudhoniennes sur l’amour, la femme et le mariage'', 1858
* ''Les provinciaux à Paris'', in ''Paris Guide'' 1868; English translation ''Paris for Outsiders'' 2016
* ''Laide'', 1878
* ''Grecque'', 1879
* ''Païenne'', 1883
* Mes angoisses et nos luttes ', Paris, A. Lemerre, 1907
* ''L'Angleterre en Egypte'', Paris, 1922
Lilly Library
The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is an important rare book and manuscript library in the United States. At its dedication on October 3, 1960, the library contained a collection of 20,000 boo ...