Régine Deforges

The recorded working language is French. Employment is recorded with L'Humanité. Positions recorded include president of the Société des gens de lettres. Works named in the authority record are La Bicyclette bleue and 101, avenue Henri-Martin. Distinctions recorded are Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Officer of the National Order of Merit and Paulée de Meursault Prize.

Deforges was born in Montmorillon, Vienne, Deforges is sometimes called the High Priestess of French erotic literature. Deforges was the first woman to own and operate a publishing house in France. Over the years, she has been censored, prosecuted, and heavily fined for publishing "offensive" literature, beginning with Louis Aragon: Irene's Cunt. One of her novels, La Bicyclette bleue (The Blue Bicycle), published in 1981, was France's biggest bestseller. In 2000, it was made into a television series. A story of love, obsession, and survival set during the turmoil of World War II, it developed into a successful series of seven books. La Bicyclette bleue would go on to cause a major international intellectual property court case. In the initial ruling, Deforges was found guilty of plagiarizing Margaret Mitchell's famous novel Gone with the Wind. Deforges freely admitted that the first 70 pages were inspired by Mitchell's novel but the whole book was 1200 pages long. She won her case on appeal, and the ruling ordering her to pay damages was reversed. She was formerly president of the Société des Gens de Lettres de France and a member of the Prix Femina jury. She lived in Paris. Deforges transformed her home town into a "City of Writing". It has had museums and bookshops with that theme since 2000. The idea that Montmorillon should be a Book town came from Deforges who was then a local councillor. The town had a history of paper-making and her idea received both local and international support. The old medieval quarter of the town attracted six million euros of funding and now brands itself as a book town.

• 1981: La Bicyclette bleue (The Blue Bicycle, Fayard) / 1987: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 1983: 101, avenue Henri Martin (No. 101, Henri Martin Avenue, Fayard) / 1987: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 1985: Le Diable en rit encore (The Devil's Still Laughing About It, Fayard) / 1988: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 1991: Noir tango (Black Tango, Fayard) / 1993: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 1994: Rue de la Soie (Silk Road, Fayard) / 1996: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 1996: La Dernière colline (The Final Hill, Fayard) / 1999: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 1999: Cuba libre! (To the Freedom of Cuba!, Fayard) / 2001: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 2001: Alger, ville blanche (Algiers, White City, Fayard) / 2003: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 2003: Les Généraux du crépuscule (The Generals of Twilight, Fayard) / 2005: Le Livre de Poche (LGF) • 2007: Et quand vient la fin du voyage (And When the Trip is Over, Fayard)

• Entre femmes ("Among Women", Éditions Blanche/Robert Laffont 1999) • Fragments ("Fragments", France Loisirs, 1997) • Les Non-dits de Régine Deforges ("My Taboos", Stock, 1997) • Roger Stéphane ou la passion d'admirer ("Roger Stéphane, or the Drive to Admire", Fayard/Éditions Spengler, 1995) • Camilo ("Camilo", Fayard, 1999)

• Les Cent plus beaux cris de femmes ("The Hundred Most Beautiful Cries of Women", Cherche-Midi Éditeur, 1980) • La Chanson d'amour, petite anthologie ("The Love Song", Éditions Mango-Images, 1999) • Poèmes de femmes ("Poems by Women", Cherche-Midi Éditeur, 1993)

• Léa au pays des dragons, ("Léa in the Land of Dragons", 1982) • L'Apocalypse de saint Jean ("The Apocalypse of St John", Éditions Ramsay, 1985) • L'Arche de Noé de grand-mère ("Grandmother's Noah's Ark", Éditions Calligram, 1995) • Léa au pays des dragons (réédition par Nathan, 1991) • Léa et les diables ("Léa and the Demons", Seuil, 1991) • Léa et les fantômes ("Léa and the Ghosts", Seuil, 1992) • Le Couvent de sœur Isabelle ("The Convent of Sister Isabelle", Seuil, 1992) • Les Chiffons de Lucie ("Lucie's Scraps", Éditions Calligram, 1993) • Les Poupées de grand-mère ("Grandmother's Dolls", Stock, 1994)

• Contes Pervers (aka Les Filles de Madame Claude / Erotic Tales; director, 1980)

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