Alexandre Dumas, fils
Mina wanted to do something with her life. Did however not know what in the beginning. In Brussels where she lived, she was accepted at the Conservatory for voice and piano. But after one year she did quit. After the death of two of her sisters, and a broken engagement. she decides to be an artist, globe-trotting along stages. She continues her education as a singer in Paris. In Europe she has only little success. In 1871 she decides therefore to go to America. The start was difficult, but in the end she experiences as Stella Oristorio di Frama in the South of the US some success-performances. Karcilla Réna was another pseudonym used by Mina. Because the uncertain prospects she went in the summer of 1872 back to Brussels. In Paris published her first publication: a response to a woman-unfriendly piece by Alexandre Dumas, fils: "Lettre a M. Alexandre Dumas fils au sujet de son livre l'Homme-femme" (1872). In America she had already written her first novel. But it would take some time, before this was to be published.