January 25, 2002

'Rachilde and French Women's Authorship: From Decadence to Modernism'

By NINA C. AYOUB

When Melanie C. Hawthorne went to Périgueux in search of Rachilde, she says she had a "B-movie fantasy." Perhaps she would meet someone who had known the prolific French writer. After all, Rachilde died in her 90s, in 1953. But no such "old timer" appeared. She did not even find a "rue Rachilde." In her hometown, Rachilde "remains a foundling no one wants to claim," writes Ms. Hawthorne, an associate professor of modern languages at Texas A&M University at College