"Madame Sans-Gêne, Tome 1" by Edmond Lepelletier, Émile Moreau, and Victorien Sardou is a historical comedy premiered in 1893. A frank-speaking Parisian washerwoman named Cathérine earns the nickname "Madame Sans-Gêne" for her blunt manner. When her husband becomes a marshal under Napoleon, she enters imperial high society but refuses to abandon her common origins. Her unpolished ways clash with court expectations, leading to a confrontation with the Emperor himself over matters of loyalty, class, and an unpaid laundry bill from his early military days. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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