Victorien Sardou

Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), French dramatist and creator of skilfully constructed historical dramas, born in Paris. Sardou studied medicine for a brief time at a Paris hospital. He turned to writing and quickly gained enormous popularity. Today his contrived melodramas are admired much less than they were in his lifetime. He wrote about 70 plays, including Madame Sans-Gêne (1893; trans. 1901) and Robespierre (1899; trans. 1899). For the French actress Sarah Bernhardt, he wrote the well-known Fedora (1882; trans. 1883) and La Tosca (1887; trans. 1925), both of which were adapted for opera librettos. In 1877 he was elected to the Académie Française.