Ouida
Maria Louise de La Ramée, dite Ouida (prononciation enfantine de "Louisa"), née à Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) le et morte à Viareggio (Province de Lucques) le est une romancière anglaise.
Biographie
Issue d'un père français et d'une mère anglaise, elle tira son nom de plume Ouida du diminutif de Louisa (Louise) qu'on lui avait donné étant enfant. Durant sa carrière, elle écrivit plus 40 romans, livres pour enfants, recueils de nouvelles et essais. Militante pour les droits des animaux, elle en recueillit un grand nombre; elle posséda jusqu'à trente chiens. Elle vécut longtemps à Londres, puis vers 1874 se fixa en Italie.
Texte anglais à traduire :
Ouida's work went through several phases during her career. In her early period, her novels were a hybrid of the sensationalism of the 1860s and the proto-adventure novels dubbed "muscular fiction" that were emerging in part as a romanticization of imperial expansion. Later her work was more along the lines of historical romance, though she never stopped comment on contemporary society. She also wrote several stories for children. One of her most famous novels, Under Two Flags, described the British in Algeria in the most extravagant of terms, while nonetheless also expressing sympathy for the French--with whom Ouida deeply identified--and, to some extent, the Arabs. This book went on to be staged in plays, and subsequently to be turned into at least three movies, transitioning Ouida in the 20th century.
Herself physically of short stature and with a "voice like a carving knife," in her early years she adorned herself in diaphanous gowns, surrounded herself with flowers and commanded salons at the Langham Hotel (at times lying in bed) that included soliders, politicians, literary lights, and artists. Convinced of her own ability to influence foreign policy through a combination of womanly wiles and strategic brilliance, she planted into the ears of her famous visitors suggestions that they at least to her face appeared to take seriously. The heroine of another well-known novel, Idalia (which she claimed to have written at 16), was a rebel/ingenue sympathetic to Italian independence. Later, while living in France and Italy, Ouida continued to hold court and to attract locals and expatriates alike to her gatherings.
Ouida considered herself a serious artist, and felt comparisons to merely popular contemporaries belittled her stature. She was inspired by Byron in particular, and was interested in other artists of all kinds. Sympathetic portraits of tragic painters and singers fill her later novels. Her work often combines romanticism with a critical edge, however. In one novel, Puck, a talking dog, narrates his views on society. Ouida's Views and Opinions includes essays on a variety of social topics written in Ouida's own voice as well.
Malgré son succès, elle ne sut pas gérer sa fortune et mourut dans la misère le à Viareggio, en Italie.
Œuvres
- 1863 : Held in Bondage (publié initialement sous le titre Granville de Vigne)
- 1865 : Strathmore
- 1866 : Chandos
- 1867 : Cigarette, cantinière aux zouaves (Under Two Flags) en France 2 vol-PLON 1883 - pubié en BD "Sous 2 drapeaux", Classiques illustrés n° 16 - 1957)etext
- 1867 : Cecil Castlemaine's Gage
- 1867 : Idalia
- 1868 : Beatrice Boville and Other Stories
- 1869 : Tricotrin
- 1870 : Puck (France Librairie Perrin 1889 - 2 vol.)
- 1871 : Folle-Farine
- 1872 : A Dog of Flanders etext
- 1874 : Two Little Wooden Shoes (en France Deux petits sabots Edit. Michel Levy frères - 1874, également intitulé Bébée) Gutenberg etext of this book
- 1874 : Pascarel (France 1874)
- 1875 : Signa
- 1876 : Dans une ville d'hiver (In a Winter City) (France 1876)
- 1877 : Ariane (Ariadne) (France 1877)
- 1878 : Amitié (Friendship) (France 1878)
- 1880 : Moths
- 1880 : Pipistrello and Other Stories (France 1886 Pipistrello + Don Gesualdo + Une rose en provence)
- 1881 : A Village Commune
- 1882 : Bimbi: Stories for Children etext
- 1882 : In Maremma
- 1883 : Afternoon
- 1883 : Frescoes: Dramatic Sketches
- 1883 : Wanda (France 2 vol. 1883)
- 1884 : Les Napraxine (Princess Napraxine) (France 1884 2 vol.)
- 1885 : A Rainy June
- 1885 : Othmar (France Hachette 1885)
- 1886 : Don Gesualdo (France 1886 Don Gesualdo + Pipistrello + Une rose en provence)
- 1887 : A House Party
- 1889 : Guilderoy (France 1889)
- 1890 : Ruffino and Other Stories
- 1890 : Syrlin
- 1891 : Santa Barbara and Other Stories
- 1892 : The Tower of Taddeo
- 1893 : The New Priesthood: Une protestation contre la vivisection
- 1894 : The Silver Christ
- 1894 : The Silver Christ and A Lemon Tree
- 1894 : Two Offenders and Other Tales
- 1895 : Toxin
- 1895 : Views and Opinions
- 1896 : Le Selve and Other Tales
- 1897 : An Altruist
- 1897 : Dogs
- 1897 : Muriella; or, Le Selve
- 1897 : The Massarenes
- 1899 : La Strega and Other Stories
- 1900 : Critical Studies
- 1900 : The Waters of Edera etext
- 1901 : Street Dust and Other Stories
- 1908 : Helianthus
Liens externes
- Notices d'autorité :
- Fichier d’autorité international virtuel
- International Standard Name Identifier
- Bibliothèque nationale de France (données)
- Système universitaire de documentation
- Bibliothèque du Congrès
- Gemeinsame Normdatei
- Bibliothèque nationale de la Diète
- Bibliothèque nationale d’Espagne
- Bibliothèque royale des Pays-Bas
- Bibliothèque nationale d’Israël
- Bibliothèque universitaire de Pologne
- Bibliothèque nationale de Suède
- WorldCat
- Œuvres de Ouida sur le projet Gutenberg
- (en) Œuvres de Ouida sur Internet Archive
- (en) Œuvres de Ouida sur le Projet des femmes écrivain de l'époque victorienne
.png)