Octave Mirbeau

Born in Trévières, Normandy, in 1848, Octave Mirbeau became a novelist, journalist, art critic, pamphleteer, and playwright. His writing was known for its bold attacks on authority, social conventions, and the moral complacency of the French elite.

Mirbeau championed avant-garde artists and writers while developing a distinctly modern, often unsettling literary style. His major works include Sébastien Roch, The Torture Garden, The Diary of a Chambermaid, and the plays Les affaires sont les affaires and Le Foyer. He died in Paris in 1917.