19 Facts About Victorien Sardou

Victorien Sardou is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugene Scribe, of the well-made play.

Victorien Sardou wrote several plays that were made into popular 19th-century operas such as La Tosca on which Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca is based, and Fedora and Madame Sans-Gene that provided the subjects for the lyrical dramas Fedora and Madame Sans-Gene by Umberto Giordano.

Victorien Sardou was in succession a book-keeper at a commercial establishment, a professor of book-keeping, the head of a provincial school, then a private tutor and a schoolmaster in Paris, besides editing grammars, dictionaries and treatises on various subjects.

Victorien Sardou had begun studying medicine, but had to desist for want of funds.

Victorien Sardou taught French to foreign pupils: he gave lessons in Latin, history and mathematics to students, and wrote articles for cheap encyclopaedias.

Victorien Sardou made efforts to attract the attention of Mlle Rachel, and to win her support by submitting to her a drama, La Reine Ulfra, founded on an old Swedish chronicle.

Victorien Sardou submitted to Adolphe Lemoine, manager of the Gymnase, a play entitled Paris a l'envers, which contained the love scene, afterwards so famous, in Nos Intimes.

In 1857, Victorien Sardou felt the pangs of actual want, and his misfortunes culminated in an attack of typhoid fever.

Victorien Sardou was living in poverty and was dying in his garret, surrounded by his rejected manuscripts.

Victorien Sardou had theatrical connections and was a special favourite of Mlle Dejazet.

Victorien Sardou nursed him, cured him, and, when he was well again, introduced him to her friend.

Victorien Sardou struck a new vein by introducing a strong historic element in some of his dramatic romances.

Victorien Sardou married his benefactress, Mlle de Brecourt, but eight years later he became a widower, and soon after the Revolution of 1870 was married a second time, to Mlle Soulie on 17 June 1872, the daughter of the erudite Eudore Soulie, who for many years superintended the Musee de Versailles.

Victorien Sardou was elected to the Academie francaise in the room of the poet Joseph Autran, and took his seat on 22 May 1878.

Victorien Sardou lived at Chateau de Marly for some time.

Victorien Sardou was a fervent book collector who assembled an immense collection of 80,000 books.

Victorien Sardou obtained the Legion d'honneur in 1863 and was elected a member of the Academie francaise in 1877.

Victorien Sardou was ranked with the two undisputed leaders of dramatic art at that time, Augier and Dumas.

Victorien Sardou is mentioned in part two, chapter two of Proust's The Guermantes Way, the third volume of In Search of Lost Time.