Playwright, poet, librettist, novelist, journalist, and editor of her own literary review: Marie-Anne Barbier (1664-ca.1745) distinguished herself with success in all the literary genres popular at the beginning of the 18th century. She was one of the first women writers to earn a living from her writing. However, as soon as her first play Arrie and Petus was published, she had to
face accusations that she had entered under male tutelage the highly serious genre that was tragedy at the time, and that she had not actually written the work herself.
Although her work was well known to her contemporaries, was widely translated and republished in anthologies during the first half of the 18th century, it gradually fell into oblivion before being rediscovered early this century.
Includes Marie-Anne Barbier's defence, first published in the author's preface to the second edition of Arrie and Petus, wherein she asserts her sole authorship.
https://www.bnf.fr/fr/marie-anne-barbier-bibliographie