He was born in Honfleur (France) in 1864 into an aristocratic Normandy family. After finishing his studies at the Collège Stanislas in Paris, he studied law in order to pursue a diplomatic career, an idea that he would soon abandon to devote himself entirely to literature. Thus, in 1885, he began to publish his first verses in symbolist magazines. As Mallarmé's disciple he was one of the regulars to his famous mardi. An inveterate reader, he had an influence not only on Leconte de Lisle and the poet José María de Heredia, but also on s. XVII and XVIII. In 1911 he was elected a member of the Académie française. Of his volumes of poetry it is worth noting: Les Jeux rustiques et divins (1897) and La Sandale ailée (1905); where he remains faithful to the classical ideal but with greater freedom in form, between Verlaine and Valéry, Parnassianism and symbolism. As a novelist he was distinguished by his great talent as a narrator, his stories full of verve and irony are delicate sketches of life. His novels include: La Double maîtresse (1900), La Pécheresse (1920); and of his stories and articles: Venetian tales (1927) and Venetian sketches (1906), collected by Cabaret Voltaire under the title Venice. Régnier dies in Paris in 1936.