The son of a physician, Mirbeau was born and raised in Normandy. In 1859 he began attending a Jesuit school in Vannes, Brittany, but was dismissed four years later for unknown reasons. Mirbeau continued his studies at various boarding schools, earned a baccalaureate diploma in 1866, and spent the next three years studying law. When the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870, Mirbeau joined the military and eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant before being wounded in December of that year. He was granted a leave to seek medical attention, but when he returned he found that he had been falsely accused of desertion. Although Mirbeau was cleared of all charges after an eight-month-long investigation, the incident left him with a profound mistrust of authority. In 1872 he went to Paris and began a career as a journalist and editor, focusing primarily on art, theater, and politics for Bonapartist and monarchist papers...