Marceline Desbordes-Valmore wrote more than 25,000 lines of poetry, thousands of pages of prose and more than 3000 letters. Lauded for her innovative and intimate style, she was also dismissed as “une femme poète” by Lamartine, Hugo, Vigny, and, notably, Saint-Beuve. Desbordes-Valmore’s talent and compassion enable her to unify the feminine and the maternal while asserting the craftsmanship of a powerful and resilient poet. Her harmonious expression of love, joys, suffering, the wonders of childhood, and revolts against misery give voice to the personal and universal notions of refuge, remembrance, and recovery.
Desbordes-Valmore began writing poetry in 1807. However, it was not until her first collections Elégies, Marie et romances and Poésies were published in 1818 and 1820,
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Citation: Crampton-Frenchik, Susan. "Marceline Desbordes-Valmore". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12854, accessed 31 October 2024.]
