Pauline Ménard-Dorian
{{short description|French writer and salon hostess}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Pauline Ménard-Dorian
| birth_name =
| image = Portrait de Pauline Ménard-Dorian.jpg
| caption = Portrait of Pauline Ménard-Dorian by Eugène Carrière circa 1890.
| birth_date = 21 July 1870
| birth_place = Château du Fraisse
Third French Republic
| death_date = 24 December 1941
| death_place = Mas de Malherbes
Aimargues, Gard
Vichy France
| resting_place =
| nationality = French
| known_for = salon hostess
| spouse = Georges Victor-Hugo (1894–1899; div.)
| children = Jean Hugo
Marguerite Hugo
| parents = Paul-François Ménard
Louise-Aline Dorian
}}
Pauline Ménard-Dorian ({{IPA|fr|polin menaʁ dɔʁjɑ̃}}; 21 July 1870 – 24 December 1941) was a French woman of letters and a literary salon hostess of La Belle Époque.
Early life and family
Pauline Ménard-Dorian was born at the Château du Fraisse on 21 July 1870 to Paul-François Ménard, a wealthy politician and businessman, and Louise-Aline Dorian.{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb133-vmh/vmh/5/4|title=Letter from Louise-Aline Ménard, née Dorian, (1850-1929) to an unidentified correspondent - Letters of Victor Hugo's relatives - The Victor Hugo Collection - Archives Hub|website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk|accessdate=Sep 30, 2019}} A member of a prominent Republican family, her maternal grandfather, Pierre Frédéric Dorian, served as the Minister of Public Works for the French Third Republic. She was raised as a Protestant. She spent her childhood between living in a hotel in the Rue de la Faisanderie and her family's properties in Fraisse and Lunel.
Her mother hosted Republican salons attended by Jules de Goncourt, Edmond de Goncourt, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Auguste Rodin, Élie-Abel Carrière, Victor Considerant, and Georges Clemenceau, Georges Périn, Allain-Targé, Challemel-Lacour, and Henri Rochefort. {{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}
Adult life
In 1894 Ménard-Dorian married Georges Victor-Hugo, a grandson of Victor Hugo.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=laCKDwAAQBAJ&q=Pauline+M%C3%A9nard-Dorian&pg=PA176|title=Victor Hugo|first=Bradley|last=Stephens|date=Feb 11, 2019|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=9781789141115|accessdate=Sep 30, 2019|via=Google Books}} They had two children, Marguerite and Jean. Through her marriage she was a sister-in-law of the socialite Jeanne Hugo. She and her husband hosted popular literary and political salons in Paris attended by Zola, Marcel Proust, Léon Daudet, the Goncourt brothers, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, Eugène Carrière, and Erik Satie.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_x2DBgAAQBAJ&q=Pauline+M%C3%A9nard-Dorian&pg=PA86|title=THROUGH PARTISAN EYES: My Friendships, Literary Education, and Political Encounters in Italy (1956-2013)|first=Frank|last=Rosengarten|date=Sep 30, 2014|publisher=Firenze University Press|isbn=9788866555674|accessdate=Sep 30, 2019|via=Google Books}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_lNAaAQAAMAAJ|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_lNAaAQAAMAAJ/page/n412 397]|quote=Pauline Ménard-Dorian.|title=Cartoons Magazine|first=Henry Haven|last=Windsor|date=Sep 30, 1916|publisher=H.H. Windsor, Editor and Publisher.|accessdate=Sep 30, 2019|via=Internet Archive}} The marriage was an unhappy one, and Ménard-Dorian filed for divorce in 1899.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xrn4pbPDxikC&q=Pauline+M%C3%A9nard-Dorian&pg=PA179|title=Gilded Youth: Three Lives in France's Belle Époque|first=Kate|last=Cambor|date=Aug 3, 2010|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780374532246|accessdate=Sep 30, 2019|via=Google Books}}
Ménard-Dorian died on 24 December 1941 at the Mas de Malherbes in Aimargues.
File:Boldini - madame-georges-hugo-and-her-son-jean-1898.jpg, 1898, oil on canvas - Subject: Madame Georges Hugo (born Pauline Ménard-Dorian) and her son, Jean Hugo]]
References
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Category:19th-century French women writers
Category:20th-century French women writers
Category:People of the French Third Republic