The Modern Novel

Biography

Monique Saint-Hélier was born Berthe Eimann in Chaux-de-Fonds in 1895. After school, she went to the university of Lausanne, where she studied medicine and then literature but left after a semester, because of ill health. She met her future husband, Blaise Briod, there and they converted to Catholicism after their marriage. They went to live in Paris, where he worked for the League of nations. She was again seriously ill and was subsequently confined to a wheel chair for the rest of her life, Her first work was on her friend, the poet Rilke but she went on to write novels and stories, which had considerable success. However, her reputation dwindled till she was rediscovered in the 1980s and her best-known work, Bois-Mort (The Abandoned Wood), was republished by the very wonderful L’âge d’Homme in their wonderful Swiss literature series. She died in 1955, apparently leaving behind a large number of unpublished manuscripts.

Other sites

Monique Saint-Hélier (in French)
Monique Saint-Hélier (in French)
Monique Saint-Hélier (in French)