Leon Paul Blouet, also known by the pseudonym Max O'Rell, was born on March 2, 1847, in Avranches, Normandy, France. For his education, he studied at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Sorbonne in Paris and embarked on a military career by studying at the Ecole Militaire from 1866 to 1869. Shortly after leaving the Ecole Militaire, Blouet served as a cavalry officer in the Franco-Prussian War, being discharged in early 1871 on account of a wound. Blouet subsequently decided to pursue journalism. His liberal newspaper met resistance in his native France, and so Blouet moved to England in 1872 to work as a correspondent for French newspapers. In 1874, he became the French master at St. Paul's School in London and married Mary Bartlett.

Blouet led a successful career teaching French at the prestigious London boys' school in the 1870s and 80s, but he eventually turned to writing. In 1883, he published a book on English eccentricities and manners titled John Bull et son ile, which his wife also translated into English, and the work was such a hit with both the French- and English-speaking world, Blouet quit his position as a French teacher to devote himself to full-time writing and lecturing. The humorist authored John Bull's Womankind (1884), Drat the Boys (1886), Jonathan and his Continent (1889), Woman and Artist (1900), Her Royal Highness Woman (1901), and Rambles in Womanland (1903), all of which were originally in French but published simultaneously in English. From 1887-1890 and 1892-1893, Blouet toured the United States and British colonies as a lecturer taking a humorous spin on British culture; he became known as the French Mark Twain. In 1902, he returned to Paris where he worked as a French correspondent for the New York Journal. He died on May 24, 1903, in Paris at the age of 56.