Claudine Lesage

The French author Claudine Lesage, née Holuigue, was born in 1943. She obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature at Amiens in 1987, specializing in the works of Joseph Conrad. Lesage published several books about Conrad: La maison de Thérèse (1992), Joseph Conrad et le Continent (2003), and translations of his works: Le Forban (2005), Du goût des voyages (2007), and Coeur des Ténèbres (2009).
In 1989, while researching Conrad at the library of the Côte d’Azur town of Hyères, Lesage discovered an unsigned manuscript that appeared to be an early work of Edith Wharton. After studying the manuscript, Lesage determined it was an unpublished account of Wharton’s 1888 Mediterranean cruise aboard the private yacht, The Vanadis.
After publishing the journal as The Cruise of the Vanadis, Lesage probed further into Wharton’s work and her life, concentrating on the American writer’s French years. Lesage translated several Wharton short stories; edited Lettres a l'ami Francais (2001); and authored Edith Wharton en France (2011).
Dr. Lesage died in 2013 before she could publish her final manuscript, a work on Wharton’s life in France intended for an American audience.