Marc de Montifaud

[2] Her first book, a biography of Mary Magdalene titled Les courtisanes de l'antiquite: Marie-Magdeleine, was published in 1870.

She would go on to write numerous other works including poetry, plays, novels, humor, and even commentary on foreign policy in the newspaper La Fronde.

"[6] The prevalence of such themes in her writing caused her to be condemned as pornographic or anti-clerical by the French authorities, leading to censorship of her works and legal charges of indecency.

[2] She managed to escape to Brussels and was able to convince the authorities to convert the sentence into a stay in a mental hospital, Maison Dubois.

Throughout these trials, she argued that she was being treated more harshly than her male literary counterparts such as Charles Baudelaire or Gustave Flaubert who were charged with the same offense.