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The marriage of Nelly Roussel (1878–1922) and Henri Godet (1863–1937) bridged a vast political divide in early Third Republic France. Roussel came from a conservative Catholic bourgeois background, while Godet, the son of a Communard, embraced socialist politics and inhabited a world of bohemian artists. The marriage introduced Roussel to freethinking and neo-Malthusianism, which she combined with her own understanding of feminism to advocate birth control and women’s reproductive rights—thus forging a campaign far ahead of its time, and offensive to many in an era when birth rates were declining. Though he sometimes sought to temper her public message, Godet encouraged, supported, and marketed Roussel’s career in public speaking and journalism, and the couple faced public insult, private tragedy, and political repression together.