Zoé Oldenbourg (russian: link=no, Зоя Серге́евна Ольденбург) (31 March 1916 – 8 November 2002) was a Russian-born French popular historian and novelist who specialized in medieval French history, in particular the Crusades and Cathars.

Life

She was born in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia into a family of scholars and historians. Her father Sergei was a journalist and historian, her mother Ada Starynkevich was a mathematician, and her grandfather Sergei was the permanent secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. Her early childhood was spent among the privations of the Russian revolutionary period and the first years of Communism. Her father fled the country and established himself as a journalist in Paris. With her family, she emigrated to Paris in 1925 at the age of nine and graduated from the Lycée Molière in 1934 with her

Baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

diploma. She went on to study at the Sorbonne and then she studied painting at the

Académie Ranson The Académie Ranson was founded in Paris by the French painter Paul Ranson (1862–1909), who himself studied at the Académie Julian, in 1908.

. In 1938 she spent a year in England and studied theology. During World War II she supported herself by hand-painting scarves. She was encouraged by her father to write and she completed her first work, a novel, ''Argile et cendres'' in 1946. Although she wrote her first works in Russian, as an adult she wrote almost exclusively in French. She married Heinric Idalovici in 1948 and had two children, Olaf and Marie-Agathe.

Work

She combined a high level of scholarship with a deep feeling for the Middle Ages in her historical novels. Her first novel, ''The World is Not Enough'', offered a panoramic view of the twelfth century. Her second, ''The Cornerstone,'' was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in America. Other works include ''The Awakened'', ''The Chains of Love'', ''Massacre at Montsegur'', ''Destiny of Fire'', ''Cities of the Flesh'', and ''Catherine the Great'', a Literary Guild selection. In ''The Crusades'', Zoe Oldenbourg returned to writing about the Middle Ages.

Awards

She won the Prix Femina for her 1953 novel ''La Pierre Angulaire''.

List of works

* ''Argile et Cendres'' (1946), published in English as ''The World is Not Enough'' (translated by Willard A. Trask). * ''La Pierre Angulaire'' (1953), published in English as ''The Corner-stone'' (translated by Edward Hyams). * ''Réveillés de la vie'' (1956). * ''Les irréductibles: roman'' (1958). * ''Le Bûcher de Montségur'' (1959), non-fiction, published in English as ''Massacre at Montségur: A History of the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown ...

'' (translated by Peter Green). * ''Les Brûlés'' (1960), published in English as ''Destiny of Fire'' (translated by Peter Green). * ''Les Cités Charnelles: ou, l'Histoire de Roger de Montbrun: roman'' (1961), published in English as ''Cities of the flesh: or, The story of Roger de Montbrun'' (Translated by Anne Carter). * ''Les Croisades'' (1965), non-fiction, published in English as ''The Crusades'' (1966, translated by Anne Carter). * ''Catherine de Russie'' (1964?), published in English as ''Catherine the Great'' (1965, translated by Anne Carter). * ''La Joie des Pauvres'' (1970), published in English as ''The Heirs of the Kingdom'' (translated by Anne Carter). * ''Saint Bernard. Textes de Saint Bernard, Abélard, Pierre le Vénérable, Geoffroi de Clairvaux, Bérenger de Poitiers, Bossuet'' (1970). * ''Que vous a donc fait Israël?'' (1974). * ''Visages d'un Autoportrait'' (1977). * ''La joie-souffrance'' (1980). * ''Le Procès du Rêve'' (1982). * ''L'eveque et la vieille dame, ou, La belle-mere de Peytavi Borsier: Pièce en dix tableaux et un prologue'' (1983) * ''Que nous est Hécube?, ou, Un plaidoyer pour l'humain : essai'' (1984) * ''Les amours égarées: roman'' (1987). * ''Déguisements: nouvelles'' (1989). * ''Aliénor: pièce en quatre tableaux'' (1992)

References

External links