FEYDEAU  , ERNEST-AIMS (1821–1873),

French author, was born in Paris, on the 16th of March 1821 . He began his literary career in 1844, by the publication of a volume of poetry, Les Nationales . Either the partial failure of this literary effort, or his marriage soon afterwards to a daughter of the economist Blanqui, caused him to devote himself to finance and to archaeology . He gained a great success with his novel Fanny (1858), a success due chiefly to the cleverness with which it depicted and excused the corrupt manners of a certain portion of French society . This was followed in rapid succession by a series of fictions, similar in character, but wanting the attraction of novelty; none of them enjoyed the same vogue as Fanny . Besides his novels Feydeau wrote several plays, and he is also the author of Histoire generale des usages funebres et des sepultures des peoples anciens (3 vols., 1857–1861); Le Secret du bonheur . (sketches of Algerian life) (2 vols., 1864); and L'Allemagne en 1871 (1872), a clever caricature of German life and manners . He died in Paris on the 27th of October 1873 . See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. xiv., and Barbey d'Aurevilly, Les Euvres et les hommes au XIX' siecle .