Mononymous person break with his past. The new name combined several features. It was an anagram for a Latinized version of his family surname, "Arouet, l[e] j[eune]"; it reversed the syllables of the name of a family "château", Airvault; and it has implications of speed and daring through similarity to French expressions such as "voltige", "volte-face" and "volatile". "Arouet" would not have served the purpose, given that name's associations with "roué" and with an expression that meant "for thrashing". The 19th-century French author Marie-Henri Beyle used many pen names, most famously the mononym Stendhal, adapted from the name of the little Prussian
Marie Besnard best writer. The 2006 television film "Marie Besnard, l'empoisonneuse" (Marie Besnard, the Poisoner), resulted in the 2007 Best Performance by an Actress Emmy Award for Muriel Robin in the title role. The English historian Richard Cobb presents a sympathetic portrait of Besnard in a lengthy essay in his book about French life, "A Second Identity" (1969). Marie Besnard Marie Besnard (15 August 1896 – 14 February 1980), also known as 'The Good Lady of Loudun', was accused serial poisoner in the mid-20th century. Besnard was first charged with multiple murder on July 21, 1949, under her maiden name, Marie Joséphine