Paris 2017: Henri de Régnier and Gérard Houville in the 16e arrondissement, Paris

'ICI ONT VÉCU

LES POÈTES

HENRI DE RÉGNIER

MEMBRE de l'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE

(HONFLEUR 1864 – PARIS 1936)

–––––––

GÉRARD D'HOUVILLE

– MAIRE DE RÉGNIER née DE HEREDIA –

(PARIS 1875 – 1963)'

24 Rue de Boissière.

Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (continued): #20: Henri de Régnier

'HENRI FRANÇOIS JOSEPH de RÉGNIER

DE L'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE

1864 – 1936

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Henri de Régnier was influenced by Mallarmé, Leconte de Lisle and José-Maria de Heredia, whose daughter Marie he married in 1895, who in turn became the novelist and poet known as Gérard Houville. Before this, Maria had a relationship with the author Pierre Louÿs, who was a good friend of Henri. The writer Pierre de Régnier was the product of this relationship, although on paper he was the son of Henri and Marie. Henri's most famous collection of poems is Poèmes anciens et romanesques (1889), and his most noted prose work is the proto-Freudian novel La Double maîtresse (1900).

Paris 2015: Gérard d'Houville | Marie de Heredia, Cimetière du Père-Lachaise #22

'MME HENRI de RÉGNIER

NÉE MARIE de HEREDIA

en poésie

GÉRARD d'HOUVILLE

1875 – 1965'

 

So the pen name of Marie de Heredia was Gérard d'Houville, who was the middle daughter of the Parnassian poet José-Maria de Heredia and quite a character. Her father being a writer, she was used to seeing such others writers as Leconte de Lisle, Pierre Louÿs, Anna de Noailles and Paul Valéry at home. Although she married the poet Henri Regnier she became the mistress of Pierre Louÿs, and the future journalist Pierre de Régnier was probably the fruit of this relationship. She was also the lover of the novelist and literary critic Edmond Jaloux, the writer Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, the playwright Henri Bernstein, and she may well have had a lesbian relationship with Georgie Raoul-Duval.

She wrote a large number of books of poetry and novels.