COLET, LOUISE

ne Revoil born Aug. 15, 1810, Aix-en-Provence, Fr. died March 9, 1876, Paris French poet and novelist, as noted for her friendships with leading men of letters as for her own work. Daughter of a businessman, she married a musician, Hippolyte Colet, in 1834, and published her first poetry, Fleurs du Midi, in 1836. Her Paris salon became a meeting place for literary lights, notably Gustave Flaubert, with whom she had a stormy eight-year liaison, during which he composed his Lettres addressed to Mme Colet under the guise of The Muse. Their estrangement was followed by her bitter novel Lui (1859; Him), which caused a sensation. Among her other intimates were the poets Alfred de Musset and Alfred de Vigny and the philosopher Victor Cousin, who through his official connections helped her to gain prizes and a pension. Her other novels include La Jeunesse de Mirabeau (1841; Mirabeau's Youth) and Les Coeurs briss (1843; Broken Hearts). Among her better known works in verse are Penserosa (1840); Ce qui est dans le coeur des femmes (1852; In Women's Hearts); Ce qu'on rve en aimant (1854; What One Dreams in Love); and Le Pome de la femme (The Woman's Poem).