Source note

TOUCHES (Mademoiselle Felicite des), born at Guerande in 1791; related to the Grandlieus; not connected with the Touches family of Touraine, to which the regent's ambassador, more famous as a comic poet, belonged; became an orphan in 1793; her father, a major in the Gardes de la Porte, was killed on the steps of the Tuileries August 10, 1792, and her only brother, a younger member of the guard, was massacred at the Carmelite convent; lastly, her mother died of a broken heart a few days after this last catastrophe. Entrusted then to the care of her maternal aunt, Mademoiselle de Faucombe, a nun of Chelles,[*] she was taken by her to Faucombe, a considerable estate situated near Nantes, and soon afterwards she was put in prison along with her aunt on the charge of being an emissary of Pitt and Cobourg. The 9th Thermidor found them released; but Mademoiselle de Faucombe died of fright, and Felicite was sent to M. de Faucombe, an archaeologist of Nantes, being her maternal great-uncle and her nearest relative. She grew up by herself, "a tom-boy"; she had at her command an enormous library, which allowed her to acquire, at a very early age, a great mass of information. The literary spirit being developed in her, Mademoiselle des Touches began by assisting her aged uncle; wrote three articles that he believed were his own work, and, in 1822, made her beginning in literature with two volumes of dramatic works, after the fashion of Lope de Vega and Shakespeare, which produced a sort of artistic revolution. She then assumed as a permanent appellation, the pseudonym of Camille Maupin, and led a bright and independent life. Her income of eighty thousand livres, her castle of Les Touches, near Guerande —Loire-Inferieure—her Parisian mansion on the rue de Mont-Blanc—now rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin,—her birth, and her connections, had their power of influence. Her irregularities were covered as with a veil, in consideration of her genius. Indeed, Mademoiselle des Touches had more than one lover: a gallant about 1817; then an original mind, a sceptic, the real creator of Camille Maupin; and next Gennaro Conti, whom she knew in Rome, and Claude Vignon, a critic of reputation. [Beatrix. Lost Illusions. Lost Illusions.] Felicite was a patron of Joseph Bridau, the romantic painter, who was despised by the bourgeois [A Bachelor's Establishment.]; she felt a liking for Lucien de Rubempre, whom, indeed, she came near marrying; though this circumstance did not prevent her from aiding the poet's mistress, Coralie, the actress; for, at the time of their amours, Felicite des Touches was in high favor at the Gymnase. She was the anonymous collaborator of a comedy into which Leontine Volnys—the little Fay of that time—was introduced; she had intended to write another vaudeville play, in which Coralie was to have made the principal role. When the young actress took to her bed and died, which occurred under the Poirson-Cerfberr[+] management, Felicite paid the expenses of her burial, and was present at the funeral services, which were conducted at Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle. She gave dinner-parties on Wednesdays; Levasseur, Conti, Mesdames Pasta, Conti, Fodor, De Bargeton, and d'Espard, attended her receptions. [Lost Illusions.] Although a Legitimist, like the Marquise d'Espard, Felicite, after the Revolution of July, kept her salon open, where were frequently assembled her neighbor Leontine de Serizy, Lord Dudley and Lady Barimore, the Nucingens, Joseph Bridau, Mesdames de Cadignan and de Montcornet, the Comtesse de Vandenesse, Daniel d'Arthez, and Madame Rochegude, otherwise known as Rochefide. Canalis, Rastignac, Laginski, Montriveau, Bianchon, Marsay, and Blondet rivaled each other in telling piquant stories and passing caustic remarks under her roof. [Another Study of Woman.] Furthermore, Mademoiselle des Touches shortly afterwards gave advice to Marie de Vandenesse and condemned free love. [A Daughter of Eve.] In 1836, while traveling through Italy, which she was showing to Claude Vignon and Leon de Lora, the landscape painter, she was present at an entertainment given by Maurice de l'Hostal, the French consul at Genoa; on this occasion he gave an account of the ups and downs of the Bauvan family. [Honorine.] In 1837, after having appointed as her residuary legatee Calyste du Guenic, whom she adored, but to whom she refused to give herself over, Felicite des Touches retired to a convent in Nantes of the order of Saint-Francois. Among the works left by this second George Sand, we may mention "Le Nouveau Promethee," a bold attempt, standing alone among her works, and a short autobiographical romance, in which she described her betrayed passion for Conti, an admirable work, which was regarded as the counterpart of Benjamin Constant's "Adolphe." [Beatrix. The Muse of the Department.]