Octave Mirbeau was one of the best-known figures on the journalistic, literary, and artistic scene of France's belle époque. In his youth Mirbeau wrote for the right-wing press and later for the left. His mature journalism championed the oppressed, addressing such issues as poverty, colonialism, child welfare, the death penalty, prostitution, and women's legal rights. His novels presented moral and social problems such as the sexual abuse of boys at Jesuit collèges, priests' celibacy, and the sexual hypocrisy of the ruling classes. He became a playwright in the 1890s, expressing leftist views with an anarchist bent. In his plays he attacked the hypocrisy of bourgeois marriage (Vieux ménage [Old Couple, 1894]), chastised the corruption of politicians (L'Epidémie [The Epidemic, 1898]), condemned the irresponsibility of leaders (Les Mauvais bergers [Bad Shepherds, 1897]), criticized the obsessional pursuit of riches (Les Affaires sont les affaires [Business Is...