Marthe, histoire d'une fille (English: Marthe, the Story of a Girl - where "girl" has the implication "prostitute" ) was the first novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, published in 1876. The book is autobiographical in inspiration and tells the story of the love affair between a young journalist called Léo and the heroine of the title, a would-be actress who works in a factory for artificial pearls as well as in a licensed brothel. The love affair breaks up and Marthe goes to live with the alcoholic actor-manager Ginginet. After his death, she is reduced to living on the streets. Huysmans was worried about the response to the book's controversial subject matter, since the author Jean Richepin had recently been imprisoned for a month and fined for writing a book on the theme of p