La Vie parisienne by Nina de Villard A collection lost on the path of her pseudonymous oeuvre

Under the pseudonym Émile Villars, Nina de Villard published thirty poems in Arsène Houssaye’s L’Artiste. These poems provide the key to other work, which she published between 1865 and 1870 using the same pseudonym. They show why her salon became famous in literary history as the “Boudoir du Parnasse” and what its impact was on poets like Mallarmé, Cros, and Nouveau. Having previously been given a secondary role, this collection has brought them together and finally returned them to their real author.