Editing Sarah Bernhardt (section)

===The Odéon (1866–1872)===
[[File:Sarah Bernhardt - Le Passant.png|thumb|upright=1.3|Bernhardt as the boy troubadour, Zanetto, in ''Le Passant'' (1869) by [[François Coppée]]]]

To support herself after the birth of Maurice, Bernhardt played minor roles and understudies at the Porte Saint-Martin theatre, a popular melodrama theatre. In early 1866, she obtained a reading with Felix Duquesnel, director of the [[Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe|Théâtre de L'Odéon]] (Odéon) on the Left Bank. Duquesnel described the reading years later, saying, "I had before me a creature who was marvelous gifted, intelligent to the point of genius, with enormous energy under an appearance frail and delicate, and a savage will." The co-director of the theatre for finance, Charles de Chilly, wanted to reject her as unreliable and too thin, but Duquesnel was enchanted; he hired her for the theater at a modest salary of 150 francs a month, which he paid out of his own pocket.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=62}} The Odéon was second in prestige only to the Comédie Française, and unlike that very traditional theatre, specialised in more modern productions. The Odéon was popular with the students of the Left Bank. Her first performances with the theatre were not successful. She was cast in highly stylised and frivolous 18th-century comedies, whereas her strong point on stage was her complete sincerity.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=54}} Her thin figure also made her look ridiculous in the ornate costumes. Dumas, her strongest supporter, commented after one performance, "she has the head of a virgin and the body of a broomstick."{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=55}} Soon, however, with different plays and more experience, her performances improved; she was praised for her performance of [[Cordelia (King Lear)|Cordelia]] in ''[[King Lear]]''.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} In June 1867, she played two roles in ''[[Athalie]]'' by Jean Racine; the part of a young woman and a young boy, Zacharie, the first of many male parts she played in her career. The influential critic Sarcey wrote "she charmed her audience like a little Orpheus."{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=55}}

Her breakthrough performance was in the 1868 revival of ''Kean'' by Alexandre Dumas, in which she played the female lead part of Anna Danby. The play was interrupted in the beginning by disturbances in the audience by young spectators who called out, "Down with Dumas! Give us Hugo!". Bernhardt addressed the audience directly: "Friends, you wish to defend the cause of justice. Are you doing it by making Monsieur Dumas responsible for the banishment of Monsieur Hugo?".{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=68}} With this the audience laughed and applauded and fell silent. At the final curtain, she received an enormous ovation, and Dumas hurried backstage to congratulate her. When she exited the theatre, a crowd had gathered at the stage door and tossed flowers at her. Her salary was immediately raised to 250 francs a month.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=55–58}}

Her next success was her performance in [[François Coppée]]'s ''Le Passant'', which premiered at the Odéon on 14 January 1868,{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=63}} playing the part of the boy troubadour, Zanetto, in a romantic renaissance tale.<ref>{{cite book | last=Aston| first=Elaine| title=Sarah Bernhardt: A French Actress on the English Stage| year=1989| publisher= Berg | isbn=0-85496-019-8| location= Oxford| page=5}}</ref> Critic Théophile Gautier described the "delicate and tender charm" of her performance. It played for 150 performances, plus a command performance at the Tuileries Palace for Napoleon III and his court. Afterwards, the emperor sent her a brooch with his initials written in diamonds.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=64}}

In her memoirs, she wrote of her time at the Odéon: "It was the theatre that I loved the most, and that I only left with regret. We all loved each other. Everyone was gay. The theatre was a like a continuation of school. All the young came there...I remember my few months at the Comédie Française. That little world was stiff, gossipy, jealous. I remember my few months at the Gymnase. There they talked only about dresses and hats, and chattered about a hundred things that had nothing to do with art. At the Odéon, I was happy. We thought only of putting on plays. We rehearsed mornings, afternoons, all the time. I adored that." Bernhardt lived with her longtime friend and assistant Madame Guérard and her son in a small cottage in the suburb of [[Auteuil, Seine|Auteuil]], and drove herself to the theatre in a small carriage. She developed a close friendship with the writer [[George Sand]], and performed in two plays that she authored.{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|page=156}} She received celebrities in her dressing room, including [[Gustave Flaubert]] and [[Leon Gambetta]]. In 1869, as she became more prosperous, she moved to a larger seven-room apartment at 16 rue Auber in the center of Paris. Her mother began to visit her for the first time in years, and her grandmother, a strict Orthodox Jew, moved into the apartment to take care of Maurice. Bernhardt added a maid and a cook to her household, as well as the beginning of a collection of animals; she had one or two dogs with her at all times, and two turtles moved freely around the apartment.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=60–61}}

In 1868, a fire completely destroyed her apartment, along with all of her belongings. She had neglected to purchase insurance. The brooch presented to her by the emperor and her pearls melted, as did the tiara presented by one of her lovers, Khalid Bey. She found the diamonds in the ashes, and the managers of the Odéon organised a benefit performance. The most famous soprano of the time, [[Adelina Patti]], performed for free. In addition, the grandmother of her father donated 120,000 francs. Bernhardt was able to buy an even larger residence, with two salons and a large dining room, at 4 rue de Rome.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|pages=72–73}}

====Wartime service at the Odéon (1870–1871)====
The outbreak of the [[Franco-Prussian War]] abruptly interrupted her theatrical career. The news of the defeat of the French Army, the surrender of Napoleon III at Sedan, and the proclamation of the [[Third French Republic]] on 4 September 1870 was followed by a [[Siege of Paris (1870–1871)|siege of Paris]] by the Prussian Army. Paris was cut off from news and from its food supply, and the theatres were closed. Bernhardt took charge of converting the Odéon into a hospital for soldiers wounded in the battles outside the city.{{Sfn|Gold|Fizdale|1991|pages=82–85}} She organised the placement of 32 beds in the lobby and the foyers, brought in her personal chef to prepare soup for the patients, and persuaded her wealthy friends and admirers to donate supplies for the hospital. Besides organising the hospital, she worked as a nurse, assisting the chief surgeon with amputations and operations.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=79}} When the coal supply of the city ran out, Bernhardt used old scenery, benches, and stage props for fuel to heat the theater.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=75}} In early January 1871, after 16 weeks of the siege, the Germans began to bombard the city with long-range cannons. The patients had to be moved to the cellar, and before long, the hospital was forced to close. Bernhardt arranged for serious cases to be transferred to another military hospital, and she rented an apartment on rue de Provence to house the remaining 20 patients. By the end of the siege, Bernhardt's hospital had cared for more than 150 wounded soldiers, including a young undergraduate from the École Polytechnique, [[Ferdinand Foch]], who later commanded the Allied armies in the [[First World War]].{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=74–78}}

The French government signed an armistice on 19 January 1871, and Bernhardt learned that her son and family had been moved to Hamburg. She went to the new chief executive of the French Republic, [[Adolphe Thiers]], and obtained a pass to go to Germany to return them. When she returned to Paris several weeks later, the city was under the rule of the [[Paris Commune]]. She moved again, taking her family to [[Saint-Germain-en-Laye]]. She later returned to her apartment on the rue de Rome in May, after the Commune was defeated by the French Army.