ABSTRACT
In February 1840, Tristan was intrigued to hear rumours that Flora, the principal character of a Paris vaudeville show, La Lionne, was intended to represent her. She wrote to her friend Olympe:
Everyone tells me that M and Madame Ancelot’s Lionne is none other than the too Tigerish Flora Tristan!—Be kind enough then to get me 2 tickets, from one of your journalist friends, so that I can go and see for myself if this dramaturgical and vaudevillian pair have succeeded in portraying my flowing mane and my cruel teeth!1
