Juliette Adam (; Lambert; 4 October 1836 – 23 August 1936) was a French author and feminist.
Life and career
Juliette Adam was born in
Verberie
Verberie () is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department in northern France.
It lies southwest of Compiègne on the main road to Senlis, Oise, Senlis and Paris. The railway station is on the line from Compièg ...
(
Oise
Oise ( ; ; ) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 in 2019.< ...
). She gave an account of her childhood, rendered unhappy by the dissensions of her parents, in ''Le roman de mon enfance et de ma jeunesse'' (Eng. trans., London and New York, 1902). Her father is described in ''Paradoxes d'un docteur allemand'' (published 1860), which shows him to have been sympathetic to
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
.
In 1852, she married a doctor named La Messine, and published in 1858 her ''Idées antiproudhoniennes sur l'amour, la femme et le mariage'', in defense of Daniel Stern (pen name of
Marie d'Agoult
Marie Catherine Sophie, Comtesse d'Agoult (born de Flavigny; 31 December 18055 March 1876), was a French romanticism, romantic author and historian, known also by her pen name, Daniel Stern.
Life
Marie was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, w ...
) and
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...
.
After her first husband's death in 1867, Juliette married Antoine Edmond Adam (1816–1877),
prefect
Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area.
A prefect' ...
of police in 1870, who subsequently became life-senator. She established a salon which was frequented by Gambetta and the other republican leaders against the conservative reaction of the 1870s. In the same interest, she founded the ''Nouvelle Revue'' in 1879, which she edited for eight years, and retained influence its administration until 1899. She published writings by Paul Bourget, Pierre Loti, and Guy de Maupassant as well as Octave Mirbeau's novel ''Le Calvaire''.
She became involved in the ''Avant-Courrière'' (Forerunner) association founded in 1893 by Jeanne Schmahl, which called for the right of women to be witnesses in public and private acts, and for the right of married women to take the product of their labor and dispose of it freely.
Adam became close friends with Yuliana Glinka, who was devoted to
theosophy
Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
and the
occult
The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...
.
Adam wrote the notes on foreign politics, and was unremitting in her attacks on Bismarck and in her advocacy of a policy of
Revanchism
Revanchism (, from ''revanche'', "revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse the territorial losses which are incurred by a country, frequently after a war or after a social movement. As a term, ''revanchism'' originated i ...
. She is generally credited with the authorship of papers on various European capitals signed "Paul Vasili," which were, in reality, the work of various writers. The most famous of her numerous novels is ''Païenne'' (1883). Her reminiscences, ''Mes premières armes littéraires et politiques'' (1904) and ''Mes sentiments et nos idées avant'' 1870 (1905), contain much interesting gossip about her distinguished contemporaries.
In 1882, she purchased the estate of an abbey in Gif-sur-Yvette (
Essonne
Essonne () is a department in the southern part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659, across 194 communes.Callian ( Var) in 1936.
Selected works
* ''Idées antiproudhoniennes sur l’amour, la femme et le mariage'', 1858
* ''Les provinciaux à Paris'', in ''Paris Guide'' 1868; English translation ''Paris for Outsiders'' 2016
* ''Laide'', 1878
* ''Grecque'', 1879
* ''Païenne'', 1883
* Mes angoisses et nos luttes ', Paris, A. Lemerre, 1907
* ''L'Angleterre en Egypte'', Paris, 1922