Simone Le Bargy, (April 3, 1877 – October 17, 1985), born Pauline Benda but better known by her stage and pen name, Madame Simone, was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

actress and woman of letters.

Biography

Born into a

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

ian family of Jewish bourgeoisie, Benda was a cousin of the writer Julien Benda. She made her stage debut in 1902 and played parts for Henri Bernstein,

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and

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, her late husband. She took after

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...

in the role of L'Aiglon's Edmond Rostand and participated in the creation of Chantecler in 1910. In 1898, she married her diction teacher Charles Le Bargy at the church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule. He was more than twice her age. After her divorce from him, she took the name, "Simone Le Bargy". She remarried, in 1909, Claude Casimir-Perier, son of former President of the Republic Jean Casimir-Perier. She was the friend of many celebrities of her time and, from 1909, she received the great literary figures of the time, like her later lover

Alain-Fournier Alain-Fournier () was the pseudonym of Henri-Alban Fournier (3 October 1886 – 22 September 1914Mémoi ...

, his friend Charles Péguy, and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

at the castle of the Trie-City. The most striking feature of her personal life is her brief and passionate affair that began May 29, 1913 with Alain-Fournier, whom she met while he was secretary of her second husband. He was killed January 12, 1915 on the front of the Aisne. Alain-Fournier was killed while leading his company September 22, 1914, during a reconnaissance of the German lines. She married a third time, to the author

, which she says in his memoirs was a marriage based on their respective common point following for each of them, a passion rudely interrupted. She lived 108 years, and was a jury member of the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works written ...

from 1935 to 1985, literary salon, friendships and Parisian influences, writing novels, memoirs (Grand Prize for Literature of academy in 1960). Her unhappy first marriage with actor Le Bargy seems to have served as a model for Jean Cocteau's ''Bel Indifferent''.

Publications

* ''Le Désordre'', Paris, Plon, 1930. * ''Jours de colère'', Paris, Plon, 1935. * ''Le Paradis terrestre'', Paris, Gallimard, 1935. * ''Québéfi'', Genève, éd. du Milieu du monde, 1943. * ''Le Bal des ardents'', Paris, Plon, 1951. * ''L'Autre roman'', Paris, Plon, 1954. * ''Sous de nouveaux soleils'', Paris, Gallimard, 1957. * ''Ce qui restait à dire'', Paris, Gallimard, 1967. * ''Mon nouveau testament'', Paris, Gallimard, 1970. * ''Correspondance 1912-1914'', avec Alain-Fournier, édité par Claude Sicard, Paris, Fayard, 1992. {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Bargy, Simone 1877 births 1985 deaths French stage actresses French centenarians French women dramatists and playwrights French National Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni French women writers Women centenarians