CROWNED BY THE FRENCH ACADEMY

Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist and playwright. His father was a silk manufacturer who suffered reverses and lost his property. Daudet took a post as a schoolteacher at Ales, Gard, but found it intolerable, and moved to Paris to live with his brother, Ernest, who was working as a journalist. Daudet wrote poetry and several plays, and secured employment as a secretary to Morny, a Minister of Napoleon III.

Sidonie Ch be is to marry Risler, an older man. Risler is an employee of Fromont, a manufacturer of wallpaper, and in addition to being engaged to Sidonie, he has been elevated to partner, and the firm will be known as Fromont and Risler. But Sidonie has long been envious of the wealth of the Fromonts, and has been having an affair with Georges Fromont, nephew of the founder and heir to the business, though Georges is married to Claire.