Corneille

I love the research required to write a fact-based novel, but there are times when it becomes overwhelming … like this morning. Not only does my heroine possibly have the heart of a murderer, but the convoluted relationships between two of my other characters—Corneille and Molière—have suddenly become far more complex than I ever imagined. Corneille and Molière were in competition for the king’s favour—and my current plot dramatizes this competition—but now there appears to be evidence to suggest that Corneille was in fact writing a number of Molière’s plays. In short, that they were collaborators, not competitors. Groan.

Molière

All of this will require more study and digestion (and, no doubt, indigestion)—and no doubt, as well, an hysterical call or two to academics who have offered to help. But right now I feel that this subject is impossibly big.