The New International Encyclopædia/Ohnet, Georges

OHNET, ō̇′nā̇′, Georges (1848—). A popular French novelist and dramatist. Ohnet left law for journalism, attempted the stage with Regina Sarpi (1875), and began his novelistic series, “Les batailles de la vie,” in 1881. Of these the most successful were: Le maître de forges (1882); La comtesse Sarah (1883); Lise Fleuron (1884); Le docteur Rameau (1888). Most of Ohnet's novels have been translated and several of them dramatized. Story and character are conventional; the tone is monotonously optimistic. But Ohnet manages commonplace material with a melodramatic skill that has won a remarkable commercial success.