Ernest-Aimé Feydeau (1821–73) was a French writer and the father of the notorious comic playwright Georges Feydeau. He was born in Paris and began his literary career in 1844 with a volume of poetry, but it was with his novel Fanny in 1858 that he became best known as a writer, a success due chiefly to the cleverness with which it depicted and excused the corrupt manners of a certain portion of French society. This was followed in rapid succession by a series of similar fictions, including in 1878 Souvenirs d’un cocodette, écrits par elle-même (Souvenirs of a High-Society Prostitute, written by Herself).

The Lafnet-illustrated edition of Cocodette was commissioned by the Briffaut brothers, Robert and Georges, and published under their Bibliothèque des Curieux imprint. Guillaume Apollinaire added an introduction and biographical essay on Feydeau.