Craven, Pauline-Marie

CRAVEN, PAULINE-MARIE. - French writer, b. in London on 12 Apr. 1808, from the noble de La Ferronays family, d. in Paris on 1 Apr. 1891. She converted her husband Augustus 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 pervaded by a Christian spirit and has 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... ». There followed 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 essays 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; and she was also the author of ascetical works, such as Une année de méditations and Le travail d'une âme, and of travel recollections, such as Réminiscences: souvenirs d'Angleterre et d'Italie, published anew in 1912. Of some of these works, all informed by a deep religious feeling and valuable both in form and in content and widely read and sought after, there are Italian translations.