What would be a good female french literary or atistic character to 
dress up as for a costume party? The character should be relatively 
easy to costume.

Dear bugs605,

The most striking costume depicting a female French character would be
Marianne, the very woman symbolizing France and the French Republic.
She is what Uncle Sam is for the USA - but much more charming, of
course. And she is a character inseparably connected with French art:
Her image can be seen on countless allegoric paintings; busts and
statues of Marianne can be found in all French town halls and official
buildings.

Besides the fact that Marianne is symbolizes France, the costume has
some huge advantages. First, there is no binding specification of her
appearance. Second, the most elegant and impressive of her typical
portrayals is also the one that is the easiest to recreate.

Marianne should wear a classic Greek garment draped around her body,
just like as the Statue of Liberty. So a toga party costume, only
arranged more carefully, should be perfect.
However, the piece of clothing that makes Marianne distinctive is her
headdress: She wears a red Liberty Cap, if possible with a cockade in
the French national colours blue-white-red attatched at one side.

See this website [1] for some inspiration on Marianne's possible appearance:
http://mapage.noos.fr/moulinhg2/educ.civique/symboles.republicains.html

This French postage stamp [2] with the head of Marianne gives a good
impression of what the Liberty Cap with the cockade should
approximately look like:
http://mapage.noos.fr/moulinhg2/educ.civique/images.ed.civ/timbgd.jpg

This side view of a Marianne bust [3] also gives an idea of the headdress:
http://www.poitou-charentes.culture.gouv.fr/pages/section6/marianne/marianne24.htm


Sources:

[1]
Le programme d'Éducation civique: Les symboles de la république - Marianne
http://mapage.noos.fr/moulinhg2/educ.civique/symboles.republicains.html

[2]
Le programme d'Éducation civique: Les symboles de la république
http://mapage.noos.fr/moulinhg2/educ.civique/citoyen.rep.dem.html

[3]
Les bustes de la République appelés Marianne
http://www.poitou-charentes.culture.gouv.fr/pages/section6/marianne/marianne.htm

Search terms used:
marianne republique
://www.google.de/search?q=marianne%20republique&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&sa=N&tab=iw
marianne france
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=marianne+france&btnG=Suche&meta=



I hope that you like this suggestion!
Regards,
Scriptor

How about going as Madame Defarge, from "A Tale of Two Cities"?

You could put together a simple peasant's costume, and carry a piece
of knitting and a basket with a fake severed head.

If you want to be more contemporary and dress like a french
bourgeoise, there was a very good documentary about it on Arte (the
half french / half german TV channel).

Arte (www.arte-tv.com/karambolage)

Pictures:

http://www.arte-tv.com/fr/connaissance-decouverte/karambolage/Cette_20semaine/Emission_2025_20Juillet_202004/576312,CmC=576318.html

Video:

http://sonix.sdv.fr:8080/ramgen/arte/karambolage/r_2_VF.rm
from 6:15 to the 9:18