| Renée Marie Gouraud d’Ablancourt | |
| Other Names: | René d'Anjou |
| Birth Date: | 1 October 1853 |
| Birth Place: | Angers |
| Death Place: | La Meignanne |
| Occupation: | writer |
| Known For: | L'Oiselle |
| Notable Works: | L'Oiselle |
Renée Marie Gouraud d'Ablancourt, née Marie Renée Joséphine Meslet (1 October 1853 –),[1] was a French writer of romance novels, historical fiction and science fiction.
She went by the pen name Renée Marie Gouraud d'Ablancourt, partly using her marital name (her spouse was Georges François Marie Lucien Gouraud en 1872) and partly her mother's (Julie Clotilde Emerance Perrot d'Ablancourt).
She also wrote under various pen names as René d'Anjou, Pierre d'Anjou or Perrot d'Blancourt, as a reference to her origins in the ancient County of Anjou.
Renée Marie Gouraud d'Ablancourt, whose birth name was Marie Renée Joséphine Meslet, was born on the 1rst of October 1853 in Angers, at 3 de la Rue Belle-Poignée. Her parents were René François Meslet, a landsowner from Savennières, and Julie Perrot d'Ablancourt, daughter of an officer of the army of Anjou, Jean Perrot d’Ablancourt.[2] Renée d'Anjou started to write stories at age 14 or 15 and seems to have invented herself an aristocrat ligneage.[3]
On 17 July 1872, Renée married Georges Gouraud, a wealthy industrialist from Nantes (owner of Papeteries de Chantenay). The couple first settled in Limoges before returning to live in Anjou, at the Château de La Filotière, which Renée was particularly fond of and where she would, much later, spend the rest of her life. They had four children: Renée (1873), Paul (1874), Marie Clotilde (1876) and Marie Cécile (1878).In 1888, the couple bought the Château du Plessis-Macé, in which they lived until 1908.[4] The family also had a pied-à-terre in Paris and Renée became a very popular figure in Parisian society life. Thanks to the patronage of novelists Henri de Bornier and Eugène Muller, Renée Gouraud d'Ablancourt became a member of the Société des Gens de Lettres in 1899.[5]
Renée Gouraud d'Ablancourt died on 13 May 1941 at the Château de La Filotière in La Meignanne.
Renée Gouraud d'Ablancourt published many short stories and popular novels, with Christian publishers, regional newspapers and fashion magazines. She was published by Hirt, La Librairie des saints pères, J. Siraudeau in Angers.[6]
In 1909, she published the stories of L'Oiselle, or Véga de Ortega, in La Mode du Petit Journal (supplement). She was transformed into a superheroine by her Lady-Bird costume, a suit with artificial wings that allowed her to fly over Paris, where she carried out her adventures. She has a whole range of gadgets, including a night vision system and pills that kept her awake at night.[7] Her stories were republished in 1912 under the title Véga la magicienne.[8]