Marie Du Fresnay, aka Maria du Fresnay, née Daminois (1809–1892), was a French writer. She was the mistress of

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

, to whom she gave a daughter, Marie-Caroline Du Fresnay (b. 4 June 1834), the only child of the French author. Her own mother was the playwright and novelist Adèle Daminois. She was also the mother of French

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

Ange Du Fresnay and the ancestor of French writer and silent film director

Guy Du Fresnay Guy Du Fresnay (1877-1937) was a French writer and silent film director best known for his silent films of the late 1910s and early 1920s. He was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1919.decree of the French Ministry of war dated 11 January 1919. He i ...

as well as of French contemporary essayist and economist Philippe Du Fresnay. Her life inspired

's most famous novel ''

Eugénie Grandet ''Eugénie Grandet'' is a novel first published in 1833 by French author Honoré de Balzac. While he was writing it he conceived his ambitious project, ''La Comédie humaine'', and almost immediately prepared a second edition, revising the names ...

'' (1833), which depicted in part her family, who were living at the time in the French city of

Sartrouville Sartrouville () is a commune in the Yvelines department, Île-de-France, north central France. it is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris, from the center of Paris. Name In the Middle Ages the name Sartrouville was recorded in Medieva ...

Biography

In 1833, as he revealed in a letter to his sister,

entered into a secret intrigue, with Marie (aka "Maria") du Fresnay, who was then 24. Her marriage to Charles Antoine Du Fresnay, son of Charles Du Fresnay, former mayor of

(portrayed as "Charles Grandet, nephew of the former mayor of

Saumur Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur statio ...

" in

) had been a failure from the start, with a 23-year age difference between them. In this letter, Balzac reveals that the young woman had just come to tell him she was pregnant. In 1834, 8 months following

's letter to his sister, Maria du Fresnay's daughter Marie-Caroline Du Fresnay was born. In 1839, she appears as the dedicatee of the second edition of

's Eugenie Grandet under the pseudonym "Maria", which was her nickname in her social circle. This is also the year of birth of her second son and third child, Ange Du Fresnay. In 1850, she would inherit a statue of French sculptor Francois Girardon from

, which confirmed the rumor of his paternity. However, the link was only confirmed in 1946, when Maria's grandson Charles du Fresnay told French journalist and historian Roger Pierrot that Marie's nickname used to be "Maria".

Bibliography

* * Gilbert Guislain, "Balzac", Studyrama, 2004 (page 81) *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fresnay, Marie du 1809 births Honoré de Balzac Year of death missing 19th-century French writers 19th-century French women People from Sartrouville