Rachilde

Rachilde () was the pen name and preferred identity of novelist and playwright Marguerite Vallette-Eymery (11 February 1860 – 4 April 1953). Born near Périgueux, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France during the Second French Empire, Rachilde went on to become a Symbolist author and one of the most prominent women in literature associated with the Decadent movement of ''fin de siècle'' France.

A diverse and challenging author, Rachilde's most famous work includes the darkly erotic novels ''Monsieur Vénus'' (1884), ''La Marquise de Sade'' (1887), and ''La Jongleuse'' (1900). She also wrote a 1928 monograph on gender identity, ''Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe'' ("Why I am not a Feminist"). Her work was noted for being frank, fantastical, and always with a suggestion of autobiography underlying questions of gender, sexuality, and identity.

She said of herself, "I always acted as an ''individual'', not thinking to found a society or to upset the present one." Provided by Wikipedia