Zoé Oldenbourg (; 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 The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

and

Cathars Catharism ( ; from the , "the pure ones") was a Christian quasi- dualist and pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a he ...

Life

She was born in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, 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 The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

in Saint Petersburg. Her early childhood was spent among the privations of the Russian revolutionary period and the first years of

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. 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 in 1934 with her diploma. She went on to study at the Sorbonne and then she studied painting at the

Académie Ranson The Académie Ranson was a private art school founded in 1908 in Paris by the French painter Paul Ranson (1862–1909). History The Académie Ranson was founded in 1908 by Paul Ranson (1862–1909), who himself studied at the Académie Jul ...

. In 1938 she spent a year in England and studied theology. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

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 The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

for her 1953 novel ''La Pierre angulaire''.

Works

Fiction

* ''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 Edward Solomon Hyams (30 September 1910 – 25 November 1975) was a British gardener and horticulturalist, historian, novelist and writer, and anarchist. He is known for his writings as a French scholar and socialist historian, and as a gardene ...

). * ''Réveillés de la vie'' (1956), published in English as ''The Awakened'' (translated by

). * ''Les Irréductibles'' (1958), published in English as ''The Chains of Love'' (translated by

Michael Bullock Michael Hale Bullock (19 April 1918 – 18 July 2008) was a British poet, novelist and translator. He was born in London and studied at the Hornsey College of Art. He went to Canada in 1968 as a Commonwealth Fellow at the University of British Co ...

). * ''Les Brûlés'' (1960), published in English as ''Destiny of Fire'' (translated by Peter Green). * ''Les Cités charnelles, ou L'Histoire de Roger de Montbrun'' (1961), published in English as ''Cities of the Flesh, or The Story of Roger de Montbrun'' (translated by Anne Carter). * ''Catherine de Russie'' (1966), published in English as ''Catherine the Great'' (translated by Anne Carter). * ''La Joie des pauvres'' (1970), published in English as ''The Heirs of the Kingdom'' (translated by Anne Carter). * ''La Joie-souffrance'' (1980). * ''Le Procès du rêve'' (1982). * ''Les Amours égarées'' (1987). * ''Déguisements'' (1989), short stories.

Non-fiction

* ''Le Bûcher de Montségur, 16 mars 1244'' (1959), published in English as ''Massacre at Montségur: A History of the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade (), also known as the Cathar Crusade (1209–1229), was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, what is now southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted pri ...

'' (translated by Peter Green). * ''Les Croisades'' (1965), published in English as ''The Crusades'' (translated by Anne Carter). * ''Saint Bernard'' (1970), includes a selection of texts on Saint Bernard by Abélard, Pierre le Vénérable, Geoffroi de Clairvaux, Bérenger de Poitiers and Bossuet. * ''L'Épopée des cathédrales'' (1972). * ''Que vous a donc fait Israël ?'' (1974). * ''Visages d'un autoportrait'' (1977), autobiography. * ''Que nous est Hécube ?, ou Un plaidoyer pour l'humain'' (1984).

Plays

* ''L'Évêque et la vieille dame, ou La Belle-mère de Peytavi Borsier'', pièce en dix tableaux et un prologue (1983). * ''Aliénor'', pièce en quatre tableaux (1992).

References

External links

Photograph of Zoé Oldenbourg at Babelio

1953 Press photograph of Zoé Oldenbourg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldenbourg, Zoe French historical novelists Prix Femina winners Writers from Paris 1916 births 2002 deaths Historians of the Crusades Soviet emigrants to France 20th-century French novelists