Audouard, Olympe (1830–1890)

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Audouard, Olympe (1830–1890)

French novelist, travel writer, and journalist. Pronunciation: OH-dö-är. Born in 1830; died in 1890; married and divorced.

The French writer Olympe Audouard married a notary in Marseilles. Though she soon separated from him, she was unable to obtain a divorce until 1885. Supported by her writing, Audouard traveled in Egypt, Turkey, and Russia. From 1860, she founded various journals in Paris (including the literary review Le Papillon), and made a successful lecture tour through America in 1868–69. After her return to France, she became interested in the occult and was an ardent advocate of women's rights, possibly fueled by her marriage as well as an experience in Paris where she was thwarted in starting a political journal because of her gender. Her novels and books of travel include How Men Love (1861), The Mysteries of the Seraglio and of the Turkish Harems (1863), War on Man (1866), Across America (1869–71), and Parisian Silhouettes (1883).