A few years after her stage debut with Caesar, Sarah did indeed leave her convent school for Paris.  There, she enrolled in the prestigious drama academy at the Paris Conservatoire.    As a student, she took roles in a variety of plays, gradually winning the attention of both the general public and powerful theater critics who praised the naturalness of her acting and her voix d’or, or golden voice.  A vibrant character offstage as well as on, she was outspoken and independent at a time when most women were not.  Among her most famous roles was that of Joan of Arc--warrior, saint and savior of France.  She also played the title role in Hamlet, dressed as a man, a endeavor that brought her as many ‘boo’s’ as ‘bravo’s’.   Controversy, however, only increased her ambition.  In addition to acting, she wrote, directed, founded her own theater company, and led her troupe on tours a far away as South America and Australia.   During a career that spanned over five decades, “The Divine Sarah” performed for everybody from farmers to kings, in every venue from circus tents to emperor’s palaces.                
            At the age of sixty-five she published her autobiography “My Double Life.” Among her most vivid childhood memories was the story of Caesar, which has been adapted here. 
            When she died in 1923, thousands of people, young and old, attended her funeral.  Dozens of short stories, novels and plays have been written about Sarah Bernhardt, whose very name still means ‘drama’ to this day.   


You can find out more about Sarah Bernhardt at the following sites:
Sarah Bernhardt: Young Students Learning Library
Sarah Bernhardt: Jewish Women's Archive
Sarah Bernhardt: Her Silent Films, Her Recordings