FEUILLET, OCTAVE French novelist and dramatist, was born at Saint-Lo, Manche, on Aug. I1, 1821. He was educated at the lycee Louis-le-Grand, Paris, and was in tended for the diplomatic profession. He became a novelist much against the will of a nervous and irritable father, who cut off his allowance for some years. He had already made himself a name when he obeyed an urgent summons from his father to return home. There he was virtually a prisoner, in constant attendance on the invalid, but there, nevertheless, his work gained in depth and power. His exile was lightened by his marriage with his cousin, Valerie Feuillet. At Saint-Lo he wrote Bellak (18 5 2) ; La Crise (1852), a drama; La Petite Comtesse (18 5 7) ; Dalila (1857) ; and his most popular work, Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre (1858). Both the two last-named were dramatized, and Feuillet broke away from Saint-Lo to Paris in each case to see the first performance. During the second of these absences his father died. He was now free, and was much courted and feted in Paris. His plays were performed at Compiegne before they were given on the public stage, and Empress Eugenie herself played Madame de Pons in Les Portraits de la Marquise. After the publication of Sibylle (1862) he left Paris and established him self at "Les Paillers," a house near Saint-Lo. His nerves had suffered during his long attendance on his father, and after a time he sold "Les Paillers," and lived a rather sad and wandering life. The best of his numerous novels, Monsieur de Camors (1867) and Julia de Trecoeur (1872), appeared during these years. He died in Paris on Dec. 29, 1890.
See Sainte-Beuve, Nouveaux Landis, vol. v.; F. Brunetiere, Nou veaux Essais sur la Litterature Contemporaine (1895) ; Deries, Octave Feuillet (1902).