He promptly attained notoriety with the publication in the La Revue fantaisiste (1861) of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs.

The versatility and fecundity of Mendès' talent is shown in his critical and dramatic writings, including several libretti, and in his novels and short stories.

They soon separated, and in 1869 he began cohabiting with the composer Augusta Holmès with whom he had five children, including:[5] The couple parted in 1886, and he later married the poet Jeanne Mette, who was to be his last companion.

He had left Paris by the midnight train on the 7th, and it is supposed that, thinking he had arrived at the station, he had opened the door of his compartment while still in the tunnel,[2] although some biographers have suggested suicide.

[6] In the same year, Catulle Mendès wrote in Le Figaro that it was after reading Gobineau's Les Religions et les Philosophies dans d´Asie centrale (The religions and philosophies of central Asia) that he had the idea to write a drama about the first woman disciple of the Báb: the Persian erudite and illustrious poet Tahéreh.