Edmond-François-Valentin About, the author of the accompanying story, was born at Dieuze, in Lorraine, on February 14, 1828. He followed the course of the French schools and in time was graduated from the École normale, whence his taste for classical studies led him to the French school at Athens. In 1853, About returned to Paris and began to write for the newspapers, especially for the Moniteur, Figaro, and Soir, and shortly after, in 1855, he published La Grèce contemporaine, a bright, though hardly just satire on the manners and customs of the people he had just left.
In the same year appeared About's first novel, Tolla, and although forced to withstand the accusation of plagiarism in this work, the following decade was the most fruitful of our author's life, the period in which he produced almost all of the novels and stories to which he owes his fame. The chief of these works are: Le Roi des Montagnes, 1856; Les Mariages de Paris, 1856; Germaine, 1857; Trente et Quarante, 1858; L'Homme à l'Oreille cassé, 1861; Le Nez d'un Notaire, 1862; Le Cas de M. Guérin, 1862; and Madelon, 1863. Le Roman d'un brave Homme did not appear until 1880. During these years About also tried the dramatic field, but without success.