Isabelle de Montolieu

author

Isabelle de Montolieu

1751–1832

A Swiss novelist and translator who helped bring English-language fiction to French readers, she is especially remembered for early French versions of Jane Austen. Her own novels and adaptations made her a lively part of literary culture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

1 Audiobook

Caroline de Lichtfield

by Isabelle de Montolieu

About the author

Born in Lausanne in 1751, Isabelle de Montolieu was a Swiss writer who published novels, adaptations, and a remarkable number of translations in French. She wrote during a period when translation was often a creative act, and her career linked French-speaking readers with popular fiction from Britain and elsewhere.

She is best known today for translating English novels, including early French versions of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. Alongside that work, she also published original fiction of her own, building a reputation as a prolific and widely read author.

Montolieu died in 1832. She remains an interesting figure for readers who enjoy the history of the novel, women’s writing, and the way stories traveled across languages long before modern publishing made that easy.