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Hermine Lecomte du Noüy
Hermine Lecomte du Noüy
	Hermine Lecomte du Nouÿ in 1911
Born	Hermine-Augustine-Eugénie Oudinot; 1854; Paris, France
Died	18 June 1915; Paris
Pen name	Pierre Guérande
Occupation	novelist; playwright;
Spouse	André Lecomte du Noüy
Children	Pierre Lecomte du Noüy
Signature

Hermine Lecomte du Noüy (née Oudinot; pen names, L'auteur d'Amitié amoureuse and Pierre Guérande; Paris, 1854 - Paris, 1915) was a French writer.

Early life

Hermine-Augustine-Eugénie Oudinot was born on 10 March 1854 in Paris. Her father was the stained glass painter Eugène-Stanislas Oudinot [fr].^[1] Her sister, Camille Oudinot [fr], was a novelist and playwright.^[1]

Career

Lecomte made her literary debut in 1896, with the novel Amitié amoureuse (Love friendship), which was a success.^[1] She signed much of her other works with the signature "L'auteur d'Amitié amoureuse" (author of Love friendship) and also used the pseudonym "Pierre Guérande".^[1] Her other works include titles such as L'Amour est un péché (Love is a Sin), Désobéissance criminelle (Criminal Disobedience), and Le Doute plus fort que l'Amour (Doubt Stronger than Love) (1900).^[1] In collaboration with Maurice de Waleffe she was the author of the novel Mater dolorous (Mother of pain) (1901), Maudit soit l'amour (Cursed be love) (1901), and Hésitation sentimentale (Sentimental hesitation) (1901); with Henri Amic she wrote En regardant passer la vie (Watching life go by) (1903), La Joie d'aimer (The Joy of Loving) (1904), Les serments ont des ailes (Oaths have wings) (1904), and Jours passés (Days gone by) (1908); with Jean de Fossendal, she was the author of L'amour guette (Love is lurking) (1908); and with B. Moyra of La Route interrompue (The Interrupted Road), a novel translated from English.^[1]

Personal life

In his biography of Maupassant, Henri Troyat notes that Lecomte lived in Étretat in a house called "La Bicoque", next to that of Maupassant, and that he often visited her, but that there is no evidence of a more in-depth relationship. However, Troyat writes, "Maupassant would take such a place in her life that, much later, she would evoke their meeting in a novel published anonymously, Amitié amoureuse (Love friendship) and in a work of memories, En regarde passer la vi (Watching life go by).^[2] She later lived in her private mansion at 30 Boulevard Flandrin in the 16th arrondissement of Paris,^[3] which has since been destroyed.

In the 1870s, she married André Lecomte du Noüy [fr], an architect in the service of the Romanian government and restorer of the church of Curtea de Argeș.^[1] Their son was Pierre Lecomte du Noüy.^[1]

Hermine Lecomte du Noüy died in her hometown on 18 June 1915.^[1]

Selected works

L'Erreur d'aimer (The Mistake of Loving) (1893), with preface by Marcel Prévost
Steeple-chase, scènes de la vie mondaine en un acte (Steeplechase, scenes from worldly life in one act) (1896), play written with Suzanne Reichenberg
Amitié amoureuse (Amorous Friendship) Calmann-Lévy, 1896
Désobéissance criminelle (Criminal Disobedience), Hachette, 1899
L'amour est mon péché (Love is my sin), Calmann-Lévy, 1899
Le Doute plus fort que l'amour (Doubt stronger than love), Calmann-Lévy, 1900
Mater dolorosa (Mother of pain), Calmann-Lévy, 1901, with Maurice de Waleffe
Maudit soit l'amour (Cursed be love), Calmann-Lévy, 1901, with Maurice de Waleffe
Hésitation sentimentale (Sentimental hesitation), Calmann-Lévy, 1902
En regardant passer la vie (Watching life go by), Paul Ollendorff, 1903, with Henri Amic
La Joie d'aimer (The Joy of Loving), Calmann-Lévy, 1904, with Henri Amic
Les serments ont des ailes (Oaths have wings), Calmann-Lévy, 1904, with Henri Amic
Jours passés (Days gone by), 1908], with Henri Amic
L'amour guette (Love is lurking), 1908, with Jean de Fossendal
La Route interrompue (The Interrupted Road), Pierre Lafitte, 1910, translation in collaboration with B. Mayra

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Larronde, Carlos, ed. (1914). "Lecomte du Noüy (Hermine-Augustine-Eugénie)". Larousse mensuel illustré (in French). Librairie Larousse. p. 598. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
^ Troyat, Henri (1989). Maupassant (in French). Flammarion. ISBN 978-2-08-066430-3. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
^ Hillairet, Jacques, Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 7th edition, 1963, vol. 1 ("A-K"), Boulevard Flandrin, p. 530