The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Rattazzi, Marie Studolmine de Solms

RATTAZZI, rät-tät'sē, Marie Studolmine de Solms, French novelist: b. Waterford, Ireland, 1833; d. Paris, February 1902. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Wyse, British Ambassador to Greece, and Letitia, eldest daughter of Lucien Bonaparte. She was married to Frederic de Solms, a rich native of Alsace in 1850, to Urbano Rattazzi (q.v.) in 1863 and to M. de Rute in 1877. Twice, in 1852 and 1864, she was exiled. She wrote much in prose and verse, and was a prominent figure in politics and society. She was one of the first woman journalists; for four years she wrote a feuilleton for the Constitutionel, and also wrote for the Pays and the Turf. In the early days of the Second Empire she was a woman of great personal beauty and gathered around her in her salon men of all shades of opinion — Hugo, Rochefort, Semenuais, Sue, About, etc. In Italy she was called the ‘Divina Fanciulla.’ In 1881 she edited ‘Rattazi et son Temps,’ and in the last two or three years of her life she published two volumes of her own memoirs, and edited the Nouvelle Revue Internationale, to which she also contributed largely. Among her other works were ‘Les Mariages d'une Creole’ (1864); ‘Si j'etais Reine’ (1868); ‘L'Aventurier des Colonies’ (1885), a drama; and the volume of tales, ‘Enigme sans Clef’ (1894).