Editing Isabelle Eberhardt (section)

==Early life and family background==
Eberhardt was born in [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]], to Alexandre Trophimowsky and Nathalie Moerder (née Eberhardt). Trophimowsky was an [[Armenians|Armenian]] [[anarchism|anarchist]], tutor, and former Orthodox priest-turned-atheist,<ref name="ren">{{cite web |url=http://www.kritische-ausgabe.de/hefte/reich/Rentsch_Wolff_Eberhardt.pdf |archive-url=https://archive.today/20161210174804/http://www.kritische-ausgabe.de/hefte/reich/Rentsch_Wolff_Eberhardt.pdf |archive-date=10 December 2016 |url-status=dead |title=Stillgestellter Orient – 100th anniversary of death of Isabelle Eberhardt |publisher=Kritische Ausgabe |date=February 2004 |access-date=20 June 2012 |author=Rentsch, Steffi |language=de }}</ref>{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=247}} and Nathalie was the [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]] daughter of a middle-class [[Lutheran]] German and a Russian Jew.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|p=141}}{{sfn|Abdel-Jaouad|1993|p=95}} Nathalie was considered to be part of the Russian [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocracy]],{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} meaning her illegitimacy was probably kept secret.{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=247}} She married widower Pavel de{{nbsp}}Moerder, a Russian [[General officer|general]] forty years her senior, who hired Trophimowsky to tutor their children Nicolas, Nathalie, and Vladimir.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=10}}

Around 1871 Nathalie took the children and left her husband for Trophimowsky, who had abandoned his own wife and family.{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=247}}{{sfn|Bodley|1968|p=142}} They left Russia, staying in Turkey and then Italy before settling in Geneva.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=11}} Around 1872 Nathalie gave birth to Augustin; de{{nbsp}}Moerder, who came to Switzerland in a failed attempt to reconcile with Nathalie, accepted the son as his own and allowed him to have his surname, but the boy's older siblings believed that Trophimowsky was the father. General de{{nbsp}}Moerder died several months later,{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} and despite their separation had arranged for his estate to pay Nathalie a considerable regular income.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=12}} The family remained in Switzerland. Four years later Eberhardt was born, and was registered as Nathalie's illegitimate daughter. Biographer [[Françoise d'Eaubonne]] speculated that Eberhardt's biological father was the poet [[Arthur Rimbaud]], who had been in Switzerland at the time. Other historians consider this unlikely and find it more likely that Trophimowsky was the father, noting that Nathalie and Trophimowsky were rarely apart, that Eberhardt's birth did not impact negatively on their partnership, and that Eberhardt was Trophimowsky's favourite child.{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} Biographer [[Cecily Mackworth]] speculated that Eberhardt's illegitimacy was due to Trophimowsky's [[nihilism|nihilist]] beliefs, which rejected traditional concepts of family.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=12}}

Eberhardt was well educated; along with the other children in the family, she was home-schooled by Trophimowsky.{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}}{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=248}} She was fluent in French, spoke Russian, German and Italian,<ref name="ren"/> and was taught Latin, Greek, and classical [[Arabic]]. She studied philosophy, [[metaphysics]], chemistry,{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=248}} history, and geography, though she was most passionate about literature, reading the works of authors including [[Pierre Loti]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Voltaire]] and [[Émile Zola]] while she was a teenager,{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} and was also an admirer of the poets [[Semyon Nadson]] and [[Charles Baudelaire]].{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=20}} At an early age she began wearing male clothing, enjoying its freedom, and her nonconformist father did not discourage her.{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=250}} The children of de{{nbsp}}Moerder resented their stepfather, who forbade them from obtaining professions or leaving the home, and effectively used them as slaves to tend to his extensive gardens.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=15}} Eberhardt's sister Nathalie married against Trophimowsky's wishes in 1888, and was subsequently cut off from the rest of the household. Nathalie's departure had a profound effect on Eberhardt's childhood, as she had been responsible for most of the home duties; the household subsequently suffered from a lack of hygiene and regular meals.{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=248}}