Félicien Mallefille

Who was Félicien Mallefille?

Jean Pierre Félicien Mallefille was a French novelist and playwright.

Mallefille was born in Mauritius. He wrote a number of plays, including Glenarvon, Les sept enfants de Lara, Le cœur et la dot, and Les sceptiques, as well as two comedies, and two novels, Le collier and La confession du Gaucho. A farce of his, Les deux veuves, later formed the basis of the libretto for Bedřich Smetana's opera The Two Widows.

He also wrote a scenario in French that was to have been the basis of a libretto for the opera Sardanapale by Franz Liszt, but delivered it so late that Liszt, angered at his unreliability, had commissioned an Italian libretto from another writer; in the end the opera was never completed. He also had a relationship with George Sand.