CRAVEN, PAULINE-MARIE. - French writer, born in London on 12 April 1808, of the noble de La Ferronays family, died in Paris on 1 April 1891. She converted her husband, Augusto C., an English diplomat, to Catholicism, and visited Italy several times.
In 1866 she published the moving and elegant Récit d'une soeur, the diary of her brother’s wife, who deeply loved her ailing husband and mourned his death after a brief marriage. The work, in two volumes, awarded a prize by the French Academy, is wholly imbued with Christian spirit and contains mystical accents worthy of a profoundly religious soul: « Mon Dieu! Votre nom est le premier que je veux écrire en commençant ces pages. Je désire qu'elles Vous fassent aimer... ». This was followed by the novels: Anne Séverin (1868), Éliane, 2 vols., Fleurage (1871), awarded a prize by the Academy, Le mot de l'énigme (1874), Le Valbriant (1884); as well as valuable studies such as Adélaïde Capece Minutolo (1869), La Marquise de Mun (1877), La jeunesse de Fanny Kemble (1880), Lady Giorgiana Fullerton, La vie et ses oeuvres (1888), Le Comte de Montalembert, Le père Damiani. She was also the author of ascetical works, such as Une année de méditations and Le travail d'une âme, and of travel reminiscences, such as Réminiscences: souvenirs d'Angleterre et d'Italie, republished in 1912. Some of these works, all marked by profound religious feeling and noteworthy alike for form and content, widely read and sought after, have been translated into Italian.