1961: Les Fiancés du Puits-Doré

by | Updated on 20/01/2026 | Published on 04/05/1961 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Youth

Hachette, coll. Bibliothèque verte n°185, 187 pages.

Alongside Don Quixote and Cyrano de Bergerac, the honoured bandit Mandrin Belle-Humeur has his place in Françoise’s pantheon. She also dedicated a book to him in 1957. Our French Robin Hood shares the limelight here with an 11-year-old girl who displays an audacity, courage and commitment “not expected of people of her sex”, to paraphrase an 18th-century phrase.

This novel from the Bibliothèque Verte series, much better written than the rest of the collection as far as I can remember, is very much in line with Françoise’s other children’s books: colorful and detailed descriptions, realistic historical context, adventures and twists and turns in every chapter. A book quite suited to instilling a taste for literature. (Vincent)

Marie Desplechins recalls her meeting with Françoise (in french) and talks about her Bibliothèque Verte books.

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1960: La Vie passionnée de Verlaine

by | Updated on 03/05/2025 | Published on 04/09/1960 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Fictional biographies

Paris, Seghers, 349 pages.

” 1896 ; un dur hiver noircit les vitres de Paris ; la neige a couvert les trottoirs d’un drap épais, puis a fondu ; on attend à nouveau qu’elle tombe. Chaque bec de gaz crache sa flamme jaune au cœur d’une plume de paon, irisation des gouttelettes de la brume.

Rue Descartes, au carreau d’un garni, un papillon rouge vacille, tremble et rouvre ses ailes ; c’est une lampe à pétrole dont la mèche noircissante va mourir. Le vieux malade est tombé sur le carrelage ébréché. Sa chemise de nuit, crasseuse, est remontée sur ses cuisses comme sur le dessin de Daumier Les Massacres de la rue Transnonnain. Il grogne et gémit ; il jure. Une de ses jambes, énorme et raide, a la couleur bleue d’une seule monstrueuse ecchymose. Il halète. Il griffe les carreaux avec ses ongles. Il crie : «Eugénie ! » Il se tait. Son souffle bruyant accompagne l’agonie de la lampe. Un fiacre qui passe ébranle les vitres de la maison et un chant d’ivrogne tourne le coin de la rue, vacille, puis disparaît.

Il est étendu par terre, dans sa chemise sale, avec son crâne chauve et sa barbe emmêlée, et il pousse encore quelques jurons; puis il gémit comme un enfant qui rêve : «Philomène… » Il se tait. “

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” Entre les mains qui le bordent et resserrent les couvertures autour de lui, le vieux se sent filer, tomber dans un trou immense ; une brèche de lumière s’ouvre à travers cette nuit : c’est le pâle soleil de Metz sur les vertes esplanades, à l’heure où sonne la diane étouffée des casernes ; la nuit va descendre, et le petit Paul tend son front ravi aux lèvres de la plus belle des femmes :

—Bonsoir, maman, dit-il. “

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1960: Planète sans adieu

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1960 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Science fiction

Paris, Arthème Fayard, 26 pages.

Pages 23 to 46 in a collective work. Short story from SF: time travel, a heroine, and a fun imaginative game about the influence of glaciations on the development of Homo .

If the text is of no great consequence, Françoise’s touch is there. And for her, this may have been a relaxing writing game, a recreation of her in-depth work of those years. (Vincent)

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1960: Le Temps d’apprendre à vivre

by | Updated on 03/05/2025 | Published on 04/05/1960 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Miscellaneous novels

Paris, Albin Michel, 377 pages.

In this edgy novel, the illusions of love intertwine with the horrors of the century that left their mark on Françoise: the concentration camps, the Rosenbergs (she’ll give me Julius as a middle name in their memory), the political struggles in the Paris of those years.

It’s also the story of the emancipation of a woman who has left, never to return, her little personal and portable concentration camp called love, to devote herself to painting or writing, the choice being left to her.

Here again, there’s a lot of Françoise’s story. This book, like so many others, is a piece of her life’s work.

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1960: Verlaine et Rimbaud ou la fausse évasion

by | Updated on 03/05/2025 | Published on 04/04/1960 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Literature essays

Paris, Albin Michel, 304 pages.

[As paradoxical as it may seem, I believe that Rimbaud’s and Verlaine’s connection has so far been very poorly studied in terms of its nature and deeper meaning. Until 1930, the question that agitated exegetes was that of homosexuality or Platonism; when the publication of the Dullaert dossier]…[vindicated Marcel Coulon]…[all Rimbaldians seemed to feel that, since this question had been settled once and for all, that of the relationship between the two men had been exhausted at the same time].

“So, everything is explained”, cried the Rimbaldists and Verlainians in chorus, when the proof of the two poets’ physical relationship was brought to light. “The real problem arises now,” Françoise replies in this essay.

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1959: Le Gabier de Surcouf

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1959 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Youth

Bruxelles, Éditions Brepols (Bruxelles), 138 pages.

This children’s book would have had its place in the Bibliothèque Verte. The story takes place in the Ile de France, which will become Mauritius. We find there the famous corsair, a young gabier, a young philosopher, etc., and a certain Mr. Piston, incarnation of one of Françoise’s ancestors.

Attached to her Breton and maritime roots, the author would have loved this song by Michel Tonnerre in this very beautiful interpretation by Thalie (who knows Françoise and appreciates her). Thank you to this one for allowing me to insert it here, and to Michel’s heirs. (Vincent)

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