Henry Gréville

Born Alice Marie Céleste Fleury Durand in 1842, Henry Gréville was the pen name of a French writer who became known for a long and remarkably productive career. She spent part of her life in Russia after marrying a French scholar and teacher, and that experience strongly influenced her fiction.

Writing in French under a masculine pseudonym, she published many novels and stories that were popular with readers in the late 19th century. Her work is often noted for its depictions of Russian life as well as its interest in relationships, manners, and the pressures of society.

She died in 1902. Although not as widely read today as some of her contemporaries, Henry Gréville remains an intriguing figure: a successful woman novelist who moved between cultures and turned that experience into fiction for a broad public.