LITERARY FRENCH WOMEN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 669, 20 November 1909, Page 11

LITERARY FRENCH WOMEN.

/• An;. English .paper'says that, according!to statistics just' published, there are in France three hundred poetesses, three hundred and forty fashion-writers, and ' fifteen ■ hundred women-novelists. Sixty:of them.belong to;the Society ..of Dramatic. Authors,', and there are three! ..hundred. women-writers.'; on, educational matters. Woman'in Prance! seems always .to, haye::been very, sharply defined, in, the. two classes, of; serious .and frivolous; not .infrequently, individual women have; belonged.; : to .both. •: It would be-.interesting/if a .census-could be: obtained of women-writers in England; One is , sure there;would .be fewer in almost, all; the classes, , but probably imbre' in the dramatic section, and possibly .as. many in the educational. ,Vln.:France,' as here, women.show, a strong, disposition 'to take .masculine pseudonyms: "Nearly,- all the best-known-writers-on tho :bthet' side ,'of;the Channel are known by ■menfs names in their work. . . ■ .'■■,">;• * "Les Nouvelles/' a seriefns daily paper! published in. Paris,' is directed -by ■ a woman—the "same who was.connected' witn '"La. : Fronde," thir paper- run by women for women, '■ but which came • to ■ an untimely end, probably because :the feminest. movement was. not then sufficiently advanced, to , support it/ The dramatic r profession- in :Trance has produced two well-known authoresses—Mme.: Sarah Bern'hardt,-. > andiMme;.;Simone'le Bargy, now. Mine. Pierre Casimir-Perier. ...'.... ; .•' ; , ■