Tastu, Amable

The poetry of Amable Tastu, who was born Sabine Casimire Amable Voïart in Metz, France, in 1798, has been described as tender, sentimental, sophisticated and uplifting. She was particularly adept at writing elegiac poetry, but also wrote children's stories, educational texts and literary criticism, and translated Robinson Crusoe into French in 1835. Her poetry led to her friendship with Adelaïde de Dufrénoy when Tastu's Le Narcisse was published in the Mercure de France in 1816. Tastu worked in the book trade to support her family after her husband had financial problems with his printing business. After his death, she travelled with her son, a diplomat, to Cyprus, Baghdad, Belgrade and Alexandria. When her eyesight began to fail, she returned to France in 1864. She died in 1885.