1.
French literature
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This article is a general introduction to French literature. For detailed information on French literature in specific periods, see the separate historical articles in the template to the right. Literature written in French language, by citizens of nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco. As of 2006, French writers have been awarded more Nobel Prizes in Literature than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country, France itself ranks first in the list of Nobel Prizes in literature by country. French literature has been for French people an object of pride for centuries. The French language is a dialect derived from Latin and heavily influenced principally by Celtic. Today, French schools emphasize the study of novels, theater, the literary arts are heavily sponsored by the state and literary prizes are major news. The Académie française and the Institut de France are important linguistic and artistic institutions in France, Literature matters deeply to the people of France and plays an important role in their sense of identity. As of 2006, French literary people have been awarded more Nobel Prizes in Literature than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country, a writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form. For most of the 20th century, French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those of any other nation. M. G, le Clézio 2014 – Patrick Modiano Grand Prix de Littérature Policière – created in 1948, for crime and detective fiction. Grand Prix du roman de lAcadémie française – created 1918, Prix Décembre – created in 1989. Prix Femina – created 1904, decided each year by an exclusively female jury, Prix Goncourt – created 1903, given to the author of the best and most imaginative prose work of the year. Prix Goncourt des Lycéens – created in 1987, Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud – created in 1957. Prix Médicis – created 1958, awarded to an author whose fame does not yet match their talent, Prix Renaudot – created in 1926. Prix Tour-Apollo Award – 1972–1990, given to the best science fiction published in French during the preceding year. Prix des Deux Magots – created in 1933, a short history of French literature Burgwinkle, William, Nicholas Hammond, and Emma Wilson, eds. The Cambridge history of French literature Cobb, Richard, Promenades, an appreciation of modern French literature Harvey, Paul. The Oxford companion to French literature Denis Hollier, ed, a New History of French Literature, Harvard University Press,1989,1150 pp. France, Peter
French literature
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Samuel Beckett Walk, Paris (France). Nobel Prize 1969.
French literature
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Seminar with Claude Simon, Cerisy (France). Nobel Prize 1985.
2.
Medieval French literature
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Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century. For historical background, see History of France, France in the Middle Ages or Middle Ages, for other national literary traditions, see Medieval literature. The language in southern France is known as langue doc or the Occitan language family, also known under the name of one of iys dialects, the Western peninsula of Brittany spoke Breton, a Celtic language. Catalan was spoken in the South, and Germanic languages and Franco-Provençal were spoken in the East, the various dialects of Old French developed into what are recognised as regional languages today. Languages which developed from dialects of Old French include Bourguignon, Champenois, Franc-Comtois, Francien, Gallo, Lorrain, Norman, Anglo-Norman, Picard, Poitevin, Saintongeais and Walloon. From 1340 to the beginning of the century, a generalized French language became clearly distinguished from the other competing Oïl languages. This is referred to as Middle French, the vast majority of literary production in Old French is in verse, the development of prose as a literary form was a late phenomenon. The French language does not have a significant stress accent or long and this means that the French metric line is not determined by the number of beats, but by the number of syllables. The most common lengths are the ten-syllable line, the eight-syllable line. Verses could be combined in a variety of ways, blocks of assonanced lines are called laisses, the choice of verse form was generally dictated by the genre. The Old French epics are written in ten-syllable assonanced laisses. The earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, the first literary works written in Old French were saints lives. The Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the half of the ninth century, is generally accepted as the first such text. It is a poem that recounts the martyrdom of a young girl. The best known of the early Old French saints lives is the Vie de Saint Alexis, the life of Saint Alexis, a translation/rewriting of a Latin legend. Saint Alexis fled from his familys home in Rome on his wedding night and dwelled as a hermit in Syria until a mystical voice began telling people of his holiness. In order to avoid the earthly honor that came with such fame, he left Syria and was back to Rome. He was only identified later when the pope read his name in a letter held in the saints hand
Medieval French literature
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Miniature from a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 195), folio 1r, portrait of Guillaume de Lorris.
3.
17th-century French literature
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In reality, 17th-century French literature encompasses far more than just the classicist masterpieces of Jean Racine and Madame de La Fayette. In Renaissance France, literature was largely the product of encyclopaedic humanism, a new conception of nobility, modelled on the Italian Renaissance courts and their concept of the perfect courtier, was beginning to evolve through French literature. In the mid-17th century, there were an estimated 2,200 authors in France, under Cardinal Richelieu, patronage of the arts and literary academies increasingly came under the control of the monarchy. Henry IVs court was considered by contemporaries a rude one, lacking the Italianate sophistication of the court of the Valois kings, the court also lacked a queen, who traditionally served as a focus of a nations authors and poets. Henrys literary tastes were largely limited to the chivalric novel Amadis of Gaul, in the 1620s, the most famous salon was held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet by Madame de Rambouillet, a rival gathering was organized by Madeleine de Scudéry. The word salon first appeared in French in 1664 from the Italian word sala, before 1664, literary gatherings were often called by the name of the room in which they occurred -- cabinet, réduit, alcôve, and ruelle. For instance, the term derives from literary gatherings held in the bedroom. Nobles, lying on their beds, would receive close friends, ruelle refers to the space between a bed and the wall in a bedroom, it became a name for these gatherings, often under the wing of educated women in the first half of the 17th century. In the context of French scholastica, academies were scholarly societies which monitored, fostered, academies first appeared in France during the Renaissance, when Jean-Antoine de Baïf created one devoted to poetry and music, inspired by the academy of Italian Marsilio Ficino. The first half of the 17th century was marked by a growth in private academies. Academies were generally more formal and more focused on criticism and analysis than salons, however, certain salons were closer to the academic spirit. In the mid-17th century, academies gradually came under government control and sponsorship, the first private academy to fall under governmental control was LAcadémie française, which remains the most prestigious governmental academy in France. Founded in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu, LAcadémie française focuses on the French language, in certain instances, the values of 17th-century nobility played a major part in the literature of the era. Most notable of these values are the aristocratic obsession with glory, the spectacle of power, prestige and luxury found in 17th-century literature may be distasteful or even offensive. The château of Versailles, court ballets, noble portraits, triumphal arches – all of these were representations of glory, the notion of glory was not vanity or boastfulness or hubris, but rather a moral imperative for the aristocracy. Nobles were required to be generous, magnanimous and to great deeds disinterestedly. Ones status in the world demanded appropriate externalisation, nobles indebted themselves to build prestigious urban mansions and to buy clothes, paintings, silverware, dishes and other furnishings befitting their rank. They were also required to show generosity by hosting sumptuous parties, conversely, social parvenus who took on the external trappings of the noble classes were severely criticised, sometimes by legal action
17th-century French literature
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Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre by
Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701)
4.
18th-century French literature
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In common with a similar movement in England at the same time, the writers of 18th century France were critical, skeptical and innovative. Their lasting contributions were the ideas of liberty, toleration, humanitarianism, equality, and progress, the 18th century saw the gradual weakening of the absolute monarchy constructed by Louis XIV. France was forced to recognize the power of England and Prussia. The Monarchy finally ended with King Louis XVI, who was unable to understand or control the forces of the French Revolution. The new class began to challenge the cultural and social monopoly of the aristocracy, French cities began to have their own theaters, coffee houses and salons, the Rise of the Third Estate culminated in their political victory in the French Revolution. Faith in science and progress was the force behind the first French Encyclopedia of Denis Diderot. The Protestants achieved legal status in France in 1787, the exchange of ideas with other countries also increased. British ideas were important, particularly such ideas as constitutional monarchy and romanticism. Toward the end of the century, a sober style appeared, aimed at illustrating scenery, work. These writers, and others such as the Abbé Sieyès, one of the authors of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. They came from the upper class or Third Estate, sought a society founded upon talent and merit. Their ideas were influenced by those of John Locke in England. They introduced the values of liberty and equality which became the ideals of the French Republic founded at the end of the century and they defended the freedom of conscience and challenged the role of religious institutions in society. For them, tolerance was a value of society. When the Convention placed the ashes of Voltaire in the Pantheon in Paris, while the philosophes had widely different approaches, they all had as a common objective, both for mankind and for individuals, the ideal of happiness. Some, like Rousseau, dreamed of the happiness of the savage, rapidly disappearing, others, like Voltaire. The philosophes were optimists, and they saw their mission clearly, they did not simply observe, the comedies of Marivaux and of Beaumarchais also played a part in this debate about and diffusion of great ideas. The relaxing of morals under the French Regency brought the return in 1716 of the Comédie-Italienne and his major works include Les Fausses Confidences, le Jeu de lamour et du hasard, and lÎle des esclaves
18th-century French literature
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Voltaire
18th-century French literature
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Rousseau
18th-century French literature
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Louis XV
18th-century French literature
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Marie Antoinette
5.
19th-century French literature
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19th-century French literature concerns the developments in French literature during a dynamic period in French history that saw the rise of Democracy and the fitful end of Monarchy and Empire. French literature enjoyed enormous prestige and success in the 19th century. The first part of the century was dominated by Romanticism, until around the mid-century Realism emerged, in the last half of the century, naturalism, parnassian poetry, and symbolism, among other styles, were often competing tendencies at the same time. Some writers did form into literary groups defined by a name, in other cases, these expressions were merely pejorative terms given by critics to certain writers or have been used by modern literary historians to group writers of divergent projects or methods. Nevertheless, these labels can be useful in describing broad historical developments in the arts and their influence was felt in theatre, poetry, prose fiction. Foreign influences played a big part in this, especially those of Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Byron, Goethe, Le mal du siècle, a sense of loss, disillusion, and aporia, typified by melancholy and lassitude. Romanticism in England and Germany largely predate French romanticism, although there was a kind of pre-romanticism in the works of Senancour and Jean-Jacques Rousseau at the end of the 18th century. French Romanticism took definite form in the works of François-René de Chateaubriand and Benjamin Constant and it found early expression also in the sentimental poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine. The major battles of romanticism in France was in the theater, the dramatic unities of time and place were abolished, tragic and comic elements appeared together and metrical freedom was won. Marked by the plays of Friedrich Schiller, the romantics often chose subjects from historic periods, victor Hugo was the outstanding genius of the Romantic School and its recognized leader. He was prolific alike in poetry, drama, and fiction, all three also wrote novels and short stories, and Musset won a belated success with his plays. Alexandre Dumas, père wrote The Three Musketeers and other novels in an historical setting. Prosper Mérimée and Charles Nodier were masters of shorter fiction, Romanticism is associated with a number of literary salons and groups, the Arsenal, the Cénacle, the salon of Louis Charles Delescluze, the salon of Antoine Deschamps, the salon of Madame de Staël. Romanticism in France defied political affiliation, one finds both liberal, conservative and socialist strains, the expression Realism, when applied to literature of the 19th century, implies the attempt to depict contemporary life and society. The growth of realism is linked to the development of science, history, honoré de Balzac is the most prominent representative of 19th century realism in fiction. His La Comédie humaine, a vast collection of nearly 100 novels, was the most ambitious scheme ever devised by a writer of fiction—nothing less than a contemporary history of his countrymen. Realism also appears in the works of Alexandre Dumas, fils, similar tendencies appeared in the theatrical melodramas of the period and, in an even more lurid and gruesome light, in the Grand Guignol at the end of the century. In addition to melodramas, popular and bourgeois theater in the mid-century turned to realism in the well-made bourgeois farces of Eugène Marin Labiche, from the 1860s on, critics increasingly speak of literary Naturalism
19th-century French literature
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This article needs additional citations for
verification. Please help improve this article by
adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2011)
6.
Bourbon Dynasty, Restored
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The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history following the fall of Napoleon in 1814 until the July Revolution of 1830. The brothers of executed Louis XVI of France reigned in highly conservative fashion, and they were nonetheless unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution and Napoleon. At the Congress of Vienna they were treated respectfully, but had to give up all the gains made since 1789. King Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon had been overthrown and executed during the French Revolution, a coalition of European powers defeated Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ended the First Empire in 1814, and restored the monarchy to the brothers of Louis XVI. The Bourbon Restoration lasted from 6 April 1814 until the uprisings of the July Revolution of 1830. There was an interlude in spring 1815—the Hundred Days—when the return of Napoleon forced the Bourbons to flee France, when Napoleon was again defeated by the Seventh Coalition they returned to power in July. During the Restoration, the new Bourbon regime was a monarchy, unlike the absolutist Ancien Régime. The period was characterized by a conservative reaction, and consequent minor but consistent occurrences of civil unrest. It also saw the reestablishment of the Catholic Church as a power in French politics. The eras of the French Revolution and Napoleon brought a series of changes to France which the Bourbon Restoration did not reverse. First of all, France became highly centralized, with all decisions made in Paris, the political geography was completely reorganized and made uniform. France was divided more than 80 departments, which have endured into the 21st century. Each department had an administrative structure, and was tightly controlled by a prefect appointed by Paris. The Catholic Church lost all its lands and buildings during the Revolution, the bishop still ruled his diocese, and communicated with the pope through the government in Paris. Bishops, priests, nuns and other people were paid salaries by the state. All the old rites and ceremonies were retained, and the government maintained the religious buildings. The Church was allowed to operate its own seminaries and to some extent local schools as well, bishops were much less powerful than before, and had no political voice. However, the Catholic Church reinvented itself and put a new emphasis on personal religiosity that gave it a hold on the psychology of the faithful, education was centralized, with the Grand Master of the University of France controlling every element of the entire educational system from Paris
Bourbon Dynasty, Restored
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Louis XVIII makes a return at the
Hôtel de Ville de Paris on August 29th, 1814
Bourbon Dynasty, Restored
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Flag
Bourbon Dynasty, Restored
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Allégorie du retour des Bourbons le 24 avril 1814: Louis XVIII relevant la France de ses ruines, by
Louis-Philippe Crépin
Bourbon Dynasty, Restored
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Popular colored etching, verging on caricature, published by Décrouant, early 19th century: La famille royale et les alliées s'occupant du bonheur de l'Europe (The Royal Family and the Allies concerned with the Happiness of Europe)
7.
July Monarchy
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The July Monarchy, was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under Louis Philippe I, starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848. It began with the overthrow of the government of Charles X. The king promised to follow the juste milieu, or the middle-of-the-road, avoiding the extremes of the supporters of Charles X. The July Monarchy was dominated by wealthy bourgeoisie and numerous former Napoleonic officials and it followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of François Guizot. The king promoted friendship with Great Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, by 1848, a year in which many European states had a revolution, the kings popularity had collapsed and he was overthrown. Louis Phillipe was pushed to the throne by an alliance between the people of Paris, the republicans, who had set up barricades in the capital, and the liberal bourgeoisie. However, at the end of his reign the so-called Citizen King was overthrown by similar barricades during the February Revolution of 1848, the Legitimists withdrew from the political stage to their castles, leaving the stage opened for the struggle between the Orleanists and the Republicans. Louis-Philippe was crowned King of the French, instead of King of France, Louis-Philippe, who had flirted with liberalism in his youth, rejected much of the pomp and circumstance of the Bourbons and surrounded himself with merchants and bankers. The July Monarchy, however, remained a time of turmoil, a large group of Legitimists on the right demanded the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne. On the left, Republicanism and, later Socialism, remained a powerful force, late in his reign Louis-Philippe became increasingly rigid and dogmatic and his President of the Council, François Guizot, had become deeply unpopular, but Louis-Philippe refused to remove him. The situation gradually escalated until the Revolutions of 1848 saw the fall of the monarchy, however, during the first several years of his regime, Louis-Philippe appeared to move his government toward legitimate, broad-based reform. And indeed, Louis-Phillipe and his ministers adhered to policies that seemed to promote the central tenets of the constitution, thus, though the July Monarchy seemed to move toward reform, this movement was largely illusory. During the years of the July Monarchy, enfranchisement roughly doubled, however, this still represented only roughly one percent of population, and as the requirements for voting were tax-based, only the wealthiest gained the privilege. By implication, the enlarged enfranchisement tended to favor the wealthy merchant bourgeoisie more than any other group, beyond simply increasing their presence within the Chamber of Deputies, this electoral enlargement provided the bourgeoisie the means by which to challenge the nobility in legislative matters. Thus, while appearing to honor his pledge to increase suffrage, Louis-Philippe acted primarily to empower his supporters, the inclusion of only the wealthiest also tended to undermine any possibility of the growth of a radical faction in Parliament, effectively serving socially conservative ends. The reformed Charter of 1830 limited the power of the King—stripping him of his ability to propose and decree legislation, one of the first acts of Louis-Philippe in constructing his cabinet was to appoint the rather conservative Casimir Perier as the premier of that body. Perier, a banker, was instrumental in shutting down many of the Republican secret societies, in addition, he oversaw the dismemberment of the National Guard after it proved too supportive of radical ideologies. He performed all of actions, of course, with royal approval
July Monarchy
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Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. The King is depicted at the entrance of the Gallerie des batailles which he had furnished in the
Château de Versailles.
July Monarchy
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Flag
July Monarchy
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Liberty Leading the People (1830) by
Eugène Delacroix commemorates the
July Revolution of 1830. The child with two pistols to the right of Liberty (who holds the
tricolor flag) would be
Victor Hugo 's inspiration for
Gavroche in
Les Misérables. [
citation needed]
July Monarchy
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Silver five-
franc coin featuring
Louis Philippe from 1834. The obverse French inscription is Louis Philippe I, Roi des Français ("Louis Philippe I, King of the French."
8.
Unfinished work
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An unfinished work is creative work that has not been finished. Its creator may have never to finish it or may have been prevented from doing so by circumstances outside of their control. Such pieces are often the subject of speculation as to what the piece would have been like had the original creator completed the work with their own hand. Sometimes artworks are finished by others and released posthumously, Unfinished works have had profound influences on their genres and have inspired others in their own projects. The term can refer to ongoing work which could eventually be finished and is distinguishable from incomplete work. There are many reasons for not being completed. Works are usually stopped when their creator dies, although some, aware of their failing health, if the work involves other people, such as a cast of actors or the subject of a portrait, it may be halted because of their unavailability. Projects that are too grandiose might never have finished, while others should be feasible. Unfinished works by authors and artists may still be made public. Alternatively, another artist may finish the piece, in some fields work may appear unfinished but are actually finished, such as Donatellos non finito technique in sculpture. Many acclaimed authors have left work incomplete, some such pieces have been published posthumously, either in their incomplete state or after being finished by somebody else. It is the job of literary executors to take charge of the work of a writer after their death and they must often decide what to do with incomplete work, using their own judgement if not given explicit instructions. These works have become iconic in Western literature, the posthumous publication of some of Ernest Hemingways unfinished novels was met with controversy. Novels can remain unfinished because the author continually rewrites the story, when enough material exists, someone else can compile and combine the work, creating a finished story from several different drafts. Mark Twains The Mysterious Stranger was written in three different versions over a period of 20 years, none of which were completed, twain biographer and literary executor Albert Paine combined the stories and published his version six years after Twains death. Similarly, J. R. R. Tolkien continuously rewrote The Silmarillion throughout his lifetime and his son, Christopher Tolkien, invited fantasy fiction writer Guy Gavriel Kay to reconstruct some parts of the book, and they eventually published a final version in 1977. In 1980, Christopher Tolkien published another collection of his fathers unfinished work. Between 1982 and 1996, he published volumes of The History of Middle-earth
Unfinished work
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An unfinished
portrait miniature of
Oliver Cromwell by
Samuel Cooper.
Unfinished work
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Franz Kafka 's unfinished writings were released after his death despite his wishes for them to be destroyed.
Unfinished work
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Mark Twain took 20 years to write three versions of
The Mysterious Stranger but he did not finish any of them.
Unfinished work
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St. Thomas Aquinas stopped work on his
Summa Theologiae in 1273 after a mystical experience.
9.
Dante
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Durante degli Alighieri, simply called Dante, was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. In the late Middle Ages, the majority of poetry was written in Latin. In De vulgari eloquentia, however, Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature, as a result, Dante played an instrumental role in establishing the national language of Italy. In addition, the first use of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, Dante has been called the Father of the Italian language and one of the greatest poets of world literature. In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta and il Poeta, he, Petrarch, Dante was born in Florence, Republic of Florence, present-day Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from autobiographic allusions in the Divine Comedy, in 1265, the sun was in Gemini between approximately May 11 and June 11. Dante claimed that his family descended from the ancient Romans, but the earliest relative he could mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei, born no earlier than about 1100. Dantes father, Alaghiero or Alighiero di Bellincione, was a White Guelph who suffered no reprisals after the Ghibellines won the Battle of Montaperti in the middle of the 13th century. Dantes family had loyalties to the Guelphs, an alliance that supported the Papacy and which was involved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines. The poets mother was Bella, likely a member of the Abati family and she died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soon married again, to Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. When Dante was 12, he was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, contracting marriages at this early age was quite common and involved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed before a notary. But by this time Dante had fallen in love with another, Beatrice Portinari, years after his marriage to Gemma he claims to have met Beatrice again, he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of his marriage is not known, the certain information is that, before his exile in 1301. Dante fought with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino and this victory brought about a reformation of the Florentine constitution. To take any part in life, one had to enroll in one of the citys many commercial or artisan guilds, so Dante entered the Physicians. In the following years, his name is recorded as speaking or voting in the various councils of the republic. A substantial portion of minutes from meetings in the years 1298–1300 was lost, however
Dante
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Profile portrait of Dante, by
Sandro Botticelli
Dante
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Portrait of Dante, from a fresco in the Palazzo dei Giudici, Florence
Dante
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Dante in Verona, by Antonio Cotti
Dante
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Statue of Dante at the
Uffizi, Florence
10.
Divine Comedy
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The Divine Comedy is a long narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c.1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work in Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature, the poems imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written and it is divided into three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. On the surface, the poem describes Dantes travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven, but at a level, it represents, allegorically. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy, consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called the Summa in verse. The work was simply titled Comedìa and the word Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio. The first printed edition to add the word divina to the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, the Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas – Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso – each consisting of 33 cantos. An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica, the number three is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number of canticas and their lengths. Additionally, the scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic, with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc. Written in the first person, the tells of Dantes journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory, Beatrice, Dantes ideal woman, within each group of 9,7 elements correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories, while 2 others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, the seven sins of the Catholic Church that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the Late repentant. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love, deficient love, and malicious love. In central Italys political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor, florences Guelphs split into factions around 1300, the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. The last word in each of the three canticas is stelle, the poem begins on the night before Good Friday in the year 1300, halfway along our lifes path. Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a low place where the sun is silent, Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, the circles number 9, with the addition of Satan completing the structure of 9 +1 =10. Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the land in the Southern Hemisphere
Divine Comedy
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Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in
Michelino 's fresco
Divine Comedy
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Detail of a manuscript in Milan's Biblioteca Trivulziana (MS 1080), written in 1337 by Francesco di ser Nardo da Barberino, showing the beginning of Dante's Comedy.
Divine Comedy
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Gustave Doré 's engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861–1868); here
Charon comes to ferry souls across the river
Acheron to Hell.
Divine Comedy
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Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory in an allegorical portrait by
Agnolo Bronzino, painted c. 1530
11.
Alfred de Musset
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Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist. Along with his poetry, he is known for writing the autobiographical novel La Confession dun enfant du siècle and his family was upper-class but poor and his father worked in various key government positions, but never gave his son any money. Early indications of Mussets boyhood talents were seen by his fondness for acting impromptu mini-plays based upon episodes from old romance stories he had read. Years later, elder brother Paul de Musset would preserve these, Alfred de Musset entered the lycée Henri-IV at the age of nine, where in 1827 he won the Latin essay prize in the Concours général. With the help of Paul Foucher, Victor Hugos brother-in-law, he began to attend, at the age of 17, the Cénacle, the literary salon of Charles Nodier at the Bibliothèque de lArsenal. After attempts at careers in medicine, law, drawing, English and piano, he one of the first Romantic writers, with his first collection of poems. By the time he reached the age of 20, his literary fame was already accompanied by a sulphurous reputation fed by his dandy side. He was the librarian of the French Ministry of the Interior under the July Monarchy, during this time he also involved himself in polemics during the Rhine crisis of 1840, caused by the French prime minister Adolphe Thiers, who as Minister of the Interior had been Mussets superior. Thiers had demanded that France should own the left bank of the Rhine, as it had under Napoleon and these demands were rejected by German songs and poems, including Nikolaus Beckers Rheinlied, which contained the verse, Sie sollen ihn nicht haben, den freien, deutschen Rhein. Musset answered to this with a poem of his own, Nous lavons eu, Mussets Nuits traces the emotional upheaval of his love for George Sand from early despair to final resignation. He is also believed to be the author of Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess. Musset was dismissed from his post as librarian by the new minister Ledru-Rollin after the revolution of 1848 and he was however appointed librarian of the Ministry of Public Instruction in 1853. On 24 April 1845 Musset received the Légion dhonneur at the time as Balzac. Alfred de Musset died in his sleep in Paris in 1857, the cause was heart failure, the combination of alcoholism and a longstanding aortic insufficiency. One symptom that had been noticed by his brother was a bobbing of the head as a result of the amplification of the pulse and he was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The French poet Arthur Rimbaud was highly critical of Mussets work, Rimbaud wrote in his Letters of a Seer that Musset did not accomplish anything because he closed his eyes before the visions. Director Jean Renoirs La règle du jeu was inspired by Mussets play Les Caprices de Marianne, henri Gervexs 1878 painting Rolla was based on a poem by de Musset. Numerous composers wrote songs using Mussets poetry during the 19th century, georges Bizets opera Djamileh is based on Mussets story Namouna
Alfred de Musset
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Alfred de Musset painted by Charles Landelle
Alfred de Musset
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Tomb of Alfred de Musset in
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Alfred de Musset
–
Rolla by
Henri Gervex, 1878
12.
Alfred de Vigny
–
Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny was a French poet and early leader of French Romanticism. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare, as an army officer with conservative and royalist views, Vigny differed sharply from most other French Romantics. Vigny was born in Loches into an aristocratic family and his maternal grandfather, the Marquis de Baraudin, had served as commodore in the royal navy. As was the case for every family, the French Revolution diminished the familys circumstances considerably. Though he was promoted to first lieutenant in 1822 and to captain the following year, prolonging successive leaves from the army, he settled in Paris with his young English bride Lydia Bunbury, whom he married in Pau in 1825. He collected his recent works in January 1826 in Poèmes antiques et modernes, with the success of these two volumes, Vigny seemed to be the rising star of the Romantic movement, though one of Vignys best friends, Victor Hugo, soon usurped that role. Unlike Hugo, Vigny retained his Royalist sympathies in politics and wrote of Hugo, now he likes to make saucy remarks and is turning into a liberal, which does not suit him. Vigny later denounced members of his inner circle whom he suspected of sympathies to the imperial police. The visit of an English theater troupe to Paris in 1827 revived French interest in Shakespeare, Vigny worked with Emile Deschamps on a translation of Romeo and Juliet. In 1831 he presented his first original play, La Maréchale dAncre, attending the theater, he met the great actress Marie Dorval, and became her jealous lover until 1838. In 1835 Vigny produced a drama titled Chatterton, based on the life of Thomas Chatterton, Chatterton is considered to be one of the best of the French romantic dramas and is still performed regularly. Servitude et grandeur militaires was a similar tripartite meditation on the condition of the soldier, although Vigny gained success as a writer, his personal life was not happy. His marriage was a disappointment, his relationship with Marie Dorval was plagued by jealousy, after the death of his mother in 1838 he inherited the property of Maine-Giraud, near Angoulême, where it was said that he had withdrawn to his ivory tower. There Vigny wrote some of his most famous poems, including La Mort du loup, proust regarded La Maison du berger as the greatest French poem of the 19th century. In 1845, after unsuccessful attempts to be elected, Vigny became a member of the Académie française. In later years, Vigny ceased to publish and he continued to write, however, and his Journal is considered by modern scholars to be a great work in its own right, though it awaits a definitive scholarly edition. Vigny considered himself a thinker as well as an author, he was, for example. His own philosophy of life was pessimistic and stoical, but celebrated human fraternity, the growth of knowledge, and mutual assistance as high values
Alfred de Vigny
–
Vigny, by
Félix Nadar.
Alfred de Vigny
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Portrait of Vigny, attributed to
François Kinson.
Alfred de Vigny
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Alfred de Vigny, by
Antoine Maurin, 1832.
Alfred de Vigny
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Sketch of Alfred de Vigny, by
Prosper Mérimée.
13.
Les Chouans
–
Les Chouans is an 1829 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac and included in the Scènes de la vie militaire section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in the French region of Brittany, the novel combines military history with a story between the aristocratic Marie de Verneuil and the Chouan royalist Alphonse de Montauran. It takes place during the 1799 post-war uprising in Fougères, Balzac conceived the idea for the novel during a trip to Brittany arranged by a family friend in 1828. Intrigued by the people and atmosphere of the region, he began collecting notes, after publishing an Avertissement for the novel, he released three editions – each of them revised significantly. Following closely in the footsteps of Sir Walter Scott, the novel uses its historical backdrop to tell a fictional story of people who sculpted the past. The novel addresses themes of love, vengeful trickery. While it is disdained by critics in favor of Balzacs later work, in the wake of the French Revolution, groups of royalists loyal to the House of Bourbon rose up against the new government. One group was the Chouans of Brittany, led by Jean Chouan and they allied themselves with counter-revolutionary forces in Vendée and by 1793 the Revolt in the Vendée had begun. The insurrection was put down by the republic, and within two years the royalist forces had been routed, the Bonaparte forces responded as the republic had, and the Chouans were defeated – although political divisions and resentment lingered for more than a century. At the start of the century, the works of Sir Walter Scott were best-sellers in France. His novels captured the ebb and flow of society, and he demonstrated the impact of major historical changes. A slew of authors in France attempted to replicate Scotts success, Balzac had previously only published potboiler novels under a variety of pseudonyms, books designed to excite readers and sell copies. He had also engaged in a series of ill-fated speculative investments, nevertheless, he believed in his skills as a writer, and awaited success around every corner. In September 1828 Balzac visited the home of a friend and retired general. He spent several weeks learning about the insurrection and he pored over his hosts books and interviewed the townspeople about their experiences during the time of the uprising. Pommereul owned a castle which had been the headquarters of the Comte de Puisaye and this incursion had been aided by the Chouans, and Balzac began collecting events and people as inspiration for his novel. While staying with Pommereul, he was given a room with a desk facing the Pellerine Mountain and he wandered around the city, taking in details to use in his descriptions of the landscape. In researching recent history, Balzac was examining events from his first years on the planet, biographer Graham Robb notes that the original subtitle of the book was La Bretagne en 1799 – the year of Balzacs birth
Les Chouans
–
Illustration of Les Chouans by
Édouard Toudouze, 1897
Les Chouans
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Balzac stayed with a family friend in
Fougères, which had seen Chouan activity in 1799.
Les Chouans
–
Later editions of the novel were revised significantly, partly to please Balzac's paramour
Ewelina Hańska.
Les Chouans
–
The style of Les Chouans was heavily influenced by
Sir Walter Scott.
14.
Sarrasine
–
For the pipevine, see Aristolochia longa. Sarrasine is a written by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1830, and is part of his Comédie Humaine, Balzac, who began writing in 1819 while living alone in the rue Lesdiguières, undertook the composition of Sarrasine in 1830. Although he had steadily produced work for over a decade, Sarrasine was among his earliest publications to appear without a pseudonym, during the period in which the novella was written, Balzac was involved in many salons, including that of Madame Recamier. Around the time in which Sarrasine was published, Balzac experienced great success with another work, in 1841, an ill Balzac reached an agreement with Furne & Co. Dubochet, Hetzel and Paulin to publish La Comédie humaine, in the 10 years that elapsed, Balzac had developed a political career, becoming heavily involved in high society, which influenced much of his writing. The first volume of La Comedie Humaine went on sale in July 1842, Sarrasine is part of its Scenes de la vie parisienne. Balzacs Sarrasine was not paid attention to prior to Roland Barthes blow-by-blow structuralist/post-structuralist analysis of the text in his book S/Z. Barthes dissects the text in accordance with five codes, around midnight during a ball the narrator is sitting at a window, out of sight, admiring the garden. He overhears the conversations of passers-by regarding the origins of the wealth of the mansions owner, there is also the presence of an unknown old man around the house, whom the family was oddly devoted to, and who frightened and intrigued the partygoers. When the man next to the narrator’s guest, Beatrix Rochefide, she touches him. The narrator says he knows who the man is and says he will tell her his story the next evening. The next evening, the narrator tells Mme de Rochefide about Ernest-Jean Sarrasine, a passionate, artistic boy, Sarrasine becomes a talented young man and, after one of his sculptures wins a competition, he heads to Rome where he sees a theatre performance featuring Zambinella. He falls in love with her, going to all of her performances, after spending time with her at a party, Sarrasine attempts to seduce Zambinella. She is reticent, suggesting some hidden secret or danger to their alliance, Sarrasine becomes increasingly convinced that Zambinella is the ideal woman. Sarrasine develops a plan to abduct her from a party at the French embassy, when Sarrasine arrives, Zambinella is dressed as a man. Sarrasine speaks to a cardinal, who is Zambinella’s patron, and is told that Zambinella is a castrato, Sarrasine refuses to believe the cardinal and leaves the party, seizing Zambinella. Once they are at his studio, Zambinella confirms that she is a castrato, Sarrasine is about to kill Zambinella as a group of the cardinal’s men barge in and stab Sarrasine
Sarrasine
–
Image from Sarrasine.
15.
Gobseck
–
Gobseck is an 1830 novella by French author Honoré de Balzac and included in the Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Gobseck first appeared in form in La Mode in March 1830 under the title l’Usurier. The actual novel appeared in a volume published by Mame-Delaunay under the title les Dangers de l’inconduite and this novel would appear in 1835 under the title of Papa Gobseck in a volume published by Madame Charles-Béchet. The definitive title of Gobseck would appear in 1842 in the Furne edition of La Comédie humaine, the plot of Gobseck, set during the French Restoration, concerns Anastasie de Restaud, née Goriot. Anastasie de Restaud is the daughter of a bourgeois who has married into the aristocracy, but is bored by her marriage. Anastasie de Restaud has an affair with Maxime de Trailles, and she turns to the usurer Jean-Esther van Gobseck for financial assistance. Maître Derville acts as Gobseck’s lawyer, subsequently both Anastasies marriage is destroyed and her family fortune is lost. Gobseck, Soviet film by Konstantin Eggert Gobseck, Soviet remake of the 1936 film by Alexandre Orlov, Gobseck, Czechoslovak TV play,1985 Gobseck public domain audiobook at LibriVox
Gobseck
–
1897 illustration from Gobseck (Mme de Restaud, Gobseck and Derville) by
Édouard Toudouze.
16.
La Peau de chagrin
–
La Peau de chagrin is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac. Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy, La Peau de chagrin belongs to the Études philosophiques group of Balzacs sequence of novels, La Comédie humaine. Before the book was completed, Balzac created excitement about it by publishing a series of articles, although he was five months late in delivering the manuscript, he succeeded in generating sufficient interest that the novel sold out instantly upon its publication. A second edition, which included a series of other philosophical tales, was released one month later. Although the novel uses fantastic elements, its focus is a realistic portrayal of the excesses of bourgeois materialism. Balzacs renowned attention to detail is used to describe a house, an antique shop, a royal banquet. He also includes details from his own life as a struggling writer, the central theme of La Peau de chagrin is the conflict between desire and longevity. The magic skin represents the owners life-force, which is depleted through every expression of will, ignoring a caution from the shopkeeper who offers him the skin, the protagonist greedily surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and decrepit at the storys end. La Peau de chagrin firmly established Balzac as a writer of significance in France and his social circle widened significantly, and he was sought eagerly by publishers for future projects. The book served as the catalyst for a series of letters he exchanged with a Polish baroness named Ewelina Hańska and it also inspired Giselher Klebes opera Die tödlichen Wünsche. In 1830 Honoré de Balzac had only begun to achieve recognition as a writer, although his parents had persuaded him to make his profession the law, he announced in 1819 that he wanted to become an author. After moving into a room near the Bibliothèque de lArsenal in Paris, Balzac wrote for one year. Frustrated, he moved back to his family in the suburb of Villeparisis and he spent the next several years writing simple potboiler novels, which he published under a variety of pseudonyms. He shared some of his income from these with his parents and he published for the first time under his own name in 1829. Les Chouans, a novel about royalist forces in Brittany, did not succeed commercially and he achieved a major success later the same year when he published La Physiologie du mariage, a treatise on the institution of marriage. Bolstered by its popularity, he added to his fame by publishing a variety of stories and essays in the magazines Revue de Paris, La Caricature. He thus made connections in the industry that later helped him to obtain reviews of his novels
La Peau de chagrin
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1897 illustration of La Peau de chagrin, drawn by
Adrien Moreau and published by George Barrie & Son
La Peau de chagrin
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Honoré de Balzac spent ten years failing as an author before he wrote La Peau de chagrin.
La Peau de chagrin
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Balzac publicized the novel he was writing in the Parisian journal La Caricature.
La Peau de chagrin
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Balzac's friend
George Sand was among the first to read the manuscript as it neared completion.
17.
Louis Lambert (novel)
–
Louis Lambert is an 1832 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac, included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme, it examines the life, Balzac wrote Louis Lambert during the summer of 1832 while he was staying with friends at the Château de Saché, and published three editions with three different titles. The novel contains a plot, focusing mostly on the metaphysical ideas of its boy-genius protagonist. Although it is not a significant example of the realist style for which Balzac became famous, specific details and events from the authors life – including punishment from teachers and social ostracism – suggest a fictionalized autobiography. While he was a student at Vendôme, Balzac wrote an essay called Traité de la Volonté, the essay discusses the philosophy of Swedenborg and others, although Balzac did not explore many of the metaphysical concepts until much later in his life. Although critics panned the novel, Balzac remained steadfast in his belief that it provided an important look at philosophy, by 1832, Honoré de Balzac had begun to make a name for himself as a writer. The second of five children, Balzac was sent to the Oratorian College de Vendôme at the age of eight and he returned from the school six years later, sickly and weak. He was taught by tutors and private schools for two and a half years, then attended the Sorbonne in Paris, after training as a law clerk for three years, he moved into a tiny garret in 1819 and began writing. His first efforts, published under a variety of pseudonyms, were cheaply printed potboiler novels. In 1829 he finally released a novel under his own name, titled Les Chouans, it was a minor success and he found fame soon afterwards with a series of novels including La Physiologie du mariage, Sarrasine, and La Peau de chagrin. In 1831 Balzac published a story called Les Proscrits, about two poets named Dante and Godefroid de Gand who attend the Sorbonne at the start of the fourteenth century. It explores questions of metaphysics and mysticism, particularly the spiritual quest for illuminism, Balzac had been influenced greatly as a young man by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg, whose theories permeate Les Proscrits. The story was published – alongside La Peau de chagrin, which delves into metaphysics – as part of an 1831 collection entitled Romans et contes philosophiques. In May 1832, Balzac suffered an injury when his tilbury carriage crashed in a Parisian street. Although he was not hurt badly, he wrote to a friend about his worry that some of the cogs in the mechanism of my brain may have got out of adjustment and his doctor ordered him to rest and refrain from writing and other mental activity. When he had recuperated, he spent the summer at the Château de Saché, just outside the city of Tours, with a family friend, while in Saché, he wrote a short novel called Notice biographique sur Louis Lambert about a misfit boy genius interested in metaphysics. Like Les Proscrits, Louis Lambert was a vehicle for Balzac to explore the ideas that had fascinated him, particularly those of Swedenborg and he hoped the work would produce an effect of incontestable superiority. And provide a rebuttal to critics who ridiculed his interest in metaphysics
Louis Lambert (novel)
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Image from Louis Lambert
Louis Lambert (novel)
–
Like his creator
Honoré de Balzac, Louis Lambert spends his adolescent years at the College de Vendôme, reading many books and suffering punishment from teachers.
Louis Lambert (novel)
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Balzac wrote Louis Lambert while staying at the
Château de Saché, near
Tours.
Louis Lambert (novel)
–
Louis Lambert's ability to feel himself present at the
Battle of Austerlitz (depicted here in a painting by
François Gérard) reflects Balzac's own use of
realism.
18.
George Saintsbury
–
George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, was an English writer, literary historian, scholar, critic and wine connoisseur. From 1874 until he returned to London in 1876 he was headmaster of the Elgin Educational Institute, for ten years he was actively engaged in journalism, becoming an important member of the staff of the Saturday Review. In 1895 he became professor of rhetoric and English literature at the University of Edinburgh and he retired to 1A Royal Crescent, Bath, Somerset and died there in 1933. It will open to visitors for the very first time in its history in 2013, an exhibition celebrating Saintsburys life will be held in the house during 2014. He coined the term Janeite for a fan of Jane Austen in his introduction to an 1894 edition of Pride and Prejudice. He went on to edit the series of Periods of European Literature, contributing the volumes on The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory, and The Earlier Renaissance. In 1925 he arranged for the publication of a lost recipe book by Anne Blencoe which had been rediscovered 200 years after her death in Weston Hall, Saintsbury wrote a short introduction to the reissued book. When he was close to death, André Simon arranged a dinner in his honour, although Saintsbury did not attend, this was the start of the Saintsbury Club, men of letters and members of the wine trade who continue to have dinners to this day. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Saintsbury. Works by George Saintsbury at Project Gutenberg Works by or about George Saintsbury at Internet Archive Works by George Saintsbury at LibriVox
George Saintsbury
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George Saintsbury, photographed by
James Lafayette, c. 1910
19.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
–
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. It has been said that Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the half of the 18th century. Buffon held the position of intendant at the Jardin du Roi, Georges was named after his mother’s uncle Georges Blaisot, the tax-farmer of the Duke of Savoy for all of Sicily. In 1714 Blaisot died childless, leaving a fortune to his seven-year-old godson. Benjamin Leclerc then purchased an estate containing the village of Buffon. Georges attended the Jesuit College of Godrans in Dijon from the age of ten onwards, from 1723–1726 he then studied law in Dijon, the prerequisite for continuing the family tradition in civil service. In 1728 Georges left Dijon to study mathematics and medicine at the University of Angers in France, in 1732 after the death of his mother and before the impending remarriage of his father, Georges left Kingston and returned to Dijon to secure his inheritance. Having added de Buffon to his name while traveling with the Duke, he repurchased the village of Buffon, with a fortune of about 80000 livres Buffon set himself up in Paris to pursue science, at first primarily mathematics and mechanics, and the increase of his fortune. In 1732 he moved to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire, in 1734 he was admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. During this period he corresponded with the Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer and his protector Maurepas had asked the Academy of Sciences to do research on wood for the construction of ships in 1733. Soon afterward, Buffon began a study, performing some of the most comprehensive tests to date on the mechanical properties of wood. Included were a series of tests to compare the properties of small specimens with those of large members, in 1739 he was appointed head of the Parisian Jardin du Roi with the help of Maurepas, he held this position to the end of his life. Buffon was instrumental in transforming the Jardin du Roi into a research center. He also enlarged it, arranging the purchase of adjoining plots of land, thanks to his talent as a writer, he was invited to join Pariss second great academy, the Académie française in 1753. In his Discours sur le style, pronounced before the Académie française, he said, Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul, the style is the man himself. Unfortunately for him, Buffons reputation as a literary stylist also gave ammunition to his detractors, The mathematician Jean le Rond DAlembert, for example, called him the great phrase-monger. In 1752 Buffon married Marie-Françoise de Saint-Belin-Malain, the daughter of an noble family from Burgundy
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, by
François-Hubert Drouais
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
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Statue of Buffon in the
Jardin des Plantes
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
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"Preuves de la théorie de la Terre", in the Buffon Museum,
Montbard,
Côte-d'Or,
France
20.
Georges Cuvier
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Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier, known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the father of paleontology. Cuvier is also known for establishing extinction as a fact—at the time, in his Essay on the Theory of the Earth Cuvier was interpreted to have proposed that new species were created after periodic catastrophic floods. In this way, Cuvier became the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century and his study of the strata of the Paris basin with Alexandre Brongniart established the basic principles of biostratigraphy. Cuvier is also remembered for strongly opposing theories of evolution, which at the time were mainly proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, Cuvier believed there was no evidence for evolution, but rather evidence for cyclical creations and destructions of life forms by global extinction events such as deluges. Cuvier supported function and rejected Lamarcks thinking and his most famous work is Le Règne Animal. In 1819, he was created a peer for life in honor of his scientific contributions, thereafter, he was known as Baron Cuvier. He died in Paris during an epidemic of cholera, some of Cuviers most influential followers were Louis Agassiz on the continent and in the United States, and Richard Owen in Britain. His name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower, Cuvier was born in Montbéliard, France, where his Protestant ancestors had lived since the time of the Reformation. His father, Jean George Cuvier, was a lieutenant in the Swiss Guards, at the time, the town, which was annexed to France on 10 October 1793, belonged to the Duchy of Württemberg. His mother, who was younger than his father, tutored him diligently throughout his early years. During his gymnasium years, he had trouble acquiring Latin and Greek, and was always at the head of his class in mathematics, history. At the age of 10, soon entering the gymnasium, he encountered a copy of Conrad Gessners Historiae Animalium. He then began frequent visits to the home of a relation, all of these he read and reread, retaining so much of the information, that by the age of 12, he was as familiar with quadrupeds and birds as a first-rate naturalist. He remained at the gymnasium for four years, Cuvier spent an additional four years at the Caroline Academy in Stuttgart, where he excelled in all of his coursework. Although he knew no German on his arrival, after nine months of study. Upon graduation, he had no money on which to live as he awaited appointment to an academic office, so in July 1788, he took a job at Fiquainville chateau in Normandy as tutor to the only son of the Comte dHéricy, a Protestant noble. There, during the early 1790s, he began his comparisons of fossils with extant forms, Cuvier regularly attended meetings held at the nearby town of Valmont for the discussion of agricultural topics. There, he acquainted with Henri Alexandre Tessier, who had assumed a false identity
Georges Cuvier
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Portrait by
François-André Vincent, 1795
Georges Cuvier
–
The Father of paleontology Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
–
Birthplace of Georges Cuvier in
Montbéliard
Georges Cuvier
–
Cuvier's tomb in the
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
21.
Sir Walter Scott
–
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature, famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. A prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh, Scott was an member of the Highland Society. He survived a bout of polio in 1773 that left him lame. To cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his grandparents farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower. Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterised much of his work. In January 1775 he returned to Edinburgh, and that went with his aunt Jenny to take spa treatment at Bath in England. In the winter of 1776 he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a cure at Prestonpans during the following summer. In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to him for school. In October 1779 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and he was now well able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books and he was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the Church of Scotland with emphasis on the Covenanters. Scott began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of 12, in March 1786 he began an apprenticeship in his fathers office to become a Writer to the Signet. While at the university Scott had become a friend of Adam Ferguson, Scott met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock, who lent him books and introduced him to James Macphersons Ossian cycle of poems. During the winter of 1786–87 the 15-year-old Scott saw Robert Burns at one of these salons, for what was to be their only meeting. When Burns noticed a print illustrating the poem The Justice of the Peace and asked who had written the poem, only Scott knew that it was by John Langhorne, and was thanked by Burns. When it was decided that he would become a lawyer, he returned to the university to study law, first taking classes in Moral Philosophy, after completing his studies in law, he became a lawyer in Edinburgh. As a lawyers clerk he made his first visit to the Scottish Highlands directing an eviction and he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1792. He had an unsuccessful love suit with Williamina Belsches of Fettercairn, as a boy, youth and young man, Scott was fascinated by the oral traditions of the Scottish Borders
Sir Walter Scott
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Raeburn 's portrait of Sir Walter Scott in 1822.
Sir Walter Scott
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Signature
Sir Walter Scott
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Scott's childhood at Sandyknowes, in the shadow of
Smailholm Tower, introduced him to the tales and folklore of the
Scottish Borders.
Sir Walter Scott
–
The Scott's family home in
George Square, Edinburgh
22.
Miguel de Cervantes
–
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, was a Spanish writer who is highly regarded as perhaps the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the worlds pre-eminent novelists. His major work, Don Quixote, considered to be the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature and his influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called la lengua de Cervantes. He has also been dubbed El príncipe de los ingenios, in 1569, in forced exile from Castile, Cervantes moved to Rome, where he worked as chamber assistant of a cardinal. He then enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and continued his life until 1575. In 1585, Cervantes published a novel named La Galatea. He worked as a agent for the Spanish Armada. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts for three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville, in 1605, Cervantes was in Valladolid when the immediate success of the first part of his Don Quixote, published in Madrid, signaled his return to the literary world. In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death and his last work, Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, was published posthumously in 1617. It is assumed that Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares, the probable date of his birth was determined from records in the church register, given the tradition of naming a child after the feast day of his birth. He was baptized in Alcalá de Henares on 9 October 1547 at the church of Santa María la Mayor. Witnesses, Baltasar Vázquez, Sexton, and I, who baptised him, Miguel at birth was not surnamed Cervantes Saavedra. He adopted the Saavedra name as an adult, by Spanish naming conventions his second surname was that of his mother, Cortinas. His paternal grandfather, Juan de Cervantes, was a lawyer who held several administrative positions. His uncle was mayor of Cabra for many years and his mother, Leonor de Cortinas, was a native of Arganda del Rey and the third daughter of a nobleman, who lost his fortune and had to sell his daughter into matrimony in 1543. This led to an awkward marriage and several affairs by Rodrigo. Leonor died on 19 October 1593, little is known of Cervantes early years. It seems he spent much of his moving from town to town with his family, eventually enrolling in The Imperial School. During this time, he met a young barmaid named Josefina Catalina de Parez, the couple fell madly in love and plotted to run away together
Miguel de Cervantes
–
Cervantes (image not authenticated - none known)
Miguel de Cervantes
–
The Church of Santa María la Mayor (background) where Cervantes was baptized in
Alcalá de Henares. The square in front of it is now called Plaza Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
–
The Battle of Lepanto by
Paolo Veronese (c. 1572, oil on canvas, 169 x 137 cm,
Gallerie dell'Accademia,
Venice).
Miguel de Cervantes
–
"The pen is the language of the soul; as the concepts that in it are generated, such will be its writings." – Miguel de Cervantes at the
Biblioteca Nacional de España (National Library of Spain).
23.
James Fenimore Cooper
–
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a form of American literature. He lived most of his life in Cooperstown, New York, Cooper was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and, in his later years, contributed generously to it. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society, but was expelled for misbehavior. Before embarking on his career as a writer, he served in the U. S. Navy as a Midshipman, the novel that launched his career was The Spy, a tale about counterespionage set during the Revolutionary War and published in 1821. He also wrote numerous sea stories, and his works are five historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among naval historians, Coopers works on the early U. S. Navy have been well received, among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece. James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1789 to William Cooper and Elizabeth Cooper and he was descended from James Cooper of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, who emigrated to the American colonies in 1679. James and his wife were Quakers who purchased plots of land in New Jersey, seventy-five years after his arrival in America, his great-grandson William was born on December 2,1754. Shortly after James first birthday, his family moved to Cooperstown, New York, later, his father was elected as a United States Congressman from Otsego County. Their town was in a area of New York that had previously been occupied by the Iroquois of the Six Nations. The Iroquois were forced to cede their territory after British defeat in the Revolutionary War, shortly after the American Revolutionary War, the state opened up these former Iroquois lands for sale and development. Coopers father purchased several acres of land in upstate New York along the head-waters of the Susquehanna River. By 1788, William Cooper had selected and surveyed the site where Cooperstown would be established and he erected a home on the shore of Otsego lake and moved his family there in the autumn of 1790. He soon began construction of the mansion that would be known as Otsego Hall and it was completed in 1799 when James was ten. At age 13, Cooper was enrolled at Yale, but he incited a dangerous prank that involved blowing up another students door — after having already locked a donkey in a recitation room, Cooper was expelled in his third year without completing his degree. Disenchanted with college, he obtained work in 1806 as a sailor and, at age 17, by 1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the fledgling United States Navy, conferred upon him on an officers warrant signed by Thomas Jefferson. At 20, Cooper inherited a fortune from his father and he married Susan Augusta de Lancey at Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York on January 1,1811 at age 21
James Fenimore Cooper
–
Photograph by
Mathew Brady, 1850
James Fenimore Cooper
–
Otsego Hall, Cooper's home
James Fenimore Cooper
–
The young Cooper, in
Midshipman 's naval uniform
James Fenimore Cooper
–
The Last of the Mohicans Illustration from 1896 edition, by J.T. Merrill
24.
Victor Hugo
–
Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best-known French writers, outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables,1862, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,1831. In France, Hugo is known primarily for his collections, such as Les Contemplations. He produced more than 4,000 drawings and also campaigned for causes such as the abolition of capital punishment. He is buried in the Panthéon in Paris and his legacy has been honoured in many ways, including his portrait being placed on French currency. Victor Hugo was the son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet, his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo. He was born in 1802 in Besançon in the region of Franche-Comté. On 19 November 1821, Léopold Hugo wrote to his son that he had conceived on one of the highest peaks in the Vosges Mountains. This elevated origin, he went on, seems to have had effects on you so that your muse is now continually sublime, Hugos childhood was a period of national political turmoil. Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of the French two years after Hugos birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored before his 13th birthday, since Hugos father was an officer, the family moved frequently and Hugo learned much from these travels. On a childhood trip to Naples, Hugo saw the vast Alpine passes and the snowy peaks, the magnificently blue Mediterranean. Though he was five years old at the time, he remembered the six-month-long trip vividly. They stayed in Naples for a few months and then headed back to Paris, at the beginning of her marriage, Hugos mother Sophie followed her husband to posts in Italy and Spain. Thereafter she dominated Hugos education and upbringing, as a result, Hugos early work in poetry and fiction reflect her passionate devotion to both King and Faith. It was only later, during the leading up to Frances 1848 Revolution. Young Victor fell in love and, against his mothers wishes, because of his close relationship with his mother, Hugo waited until after her death to marry Adèle in 1822. Adèle and Victor Hugo had their first child, Léopold, in 1823, on 28 August 1824, the couples second child, Léopoldine was born, followed by Charles on 4 November 1826, François-Victor on 28 October 1828, and Adèle on 24 August 1830. Hugos eldest and favourite daughter, Léopoldine, died aged 19 in 1843, on 4 September, she drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy skirts when a boat overturned
Victor Hugo
–
Woodburytype of Victor Hugo by
Étienne Carjat, 1876.
Victor Hugo
–
Illustration by
Luc-Olivier Merson for
Notre-Dame de Paris (1881), showing the recently restored
galerie des chimères.
Victor Hugo
–
Victor Hugo in 1853
Victor Hugo
–
Portrait of "
Cosette " by
Émile Bayard, from the original edition of
Les Misérables (1862)
25.
Brittany
–
Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, at the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means Britons land. This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain and this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec
Brittany
–
The
Carnac stones.
Brittany
Brittany
–
The five Gallic tribes of Brittany.
Brittany
–
The temple of Mars in
Corseul.
26.
French Revolution
–
Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
French Revolution
–
The
August Insurrection in 1792 precipitated the last days of the monarchy.
French Revolution
–
The French government faced a fiscal crisis in the 1780s, and King Louis XVI was blamed for mishandling these affairs.
French Revolution
–
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back.
French Revolution
–
The meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 at Versailles.
27.
Roman feuilleton
–
The term feuilleton was invented by Julien Louis Geoffroy and Bertin the Elder, editors of the French Journal des débats in 1800. The feuilleton may be described as a talk of the town, in English newspapers, the term feuilleton instead came to refer to an installment of a serial story printed in one part of a newspaper. The genre of the feuilleton in its French sense was eventually included in English newspapers, in contemporary French, feuilleton has taken on the meaning soap opera. German and Polish newspapers still use the term for their literary, a supplement called Feuilleton appeared for the first time of 28 January 1800 in the Journal des Debats magazine. The word feuilleton meant a leaf, or, in this sense, soon the supplement became the regular column devoted to entertainment and cultural issues. It is important to note that the English term column means both a part of a paper and the kind of press genre. The original feuilletons were not usually printed on a sheet, but merely separated from the political part of the newspaper by a line. The slot was therefore nicknamed, throughout the 19th century in France, in 1836 the Paris newspaper La Presse first began to circulate a separate sheet from the paper entitled Feuilleton in which cultural items were included. This French development of the idea was subsequently taken up by the Director of Die Presse of Vienna. At the turn of 19th and 20th century the connection between the name feuilleton and the specific place in the magazine became weaker. From that point the term feuilleton has been associated only with the properties of the publication. The changes in the functioning of the term feuilleton did not have influence on the traditional features of the genre. Prominent exterior features are a way for readers to identify the feuilleton as a particular genre. The French form remains popular in Continental Europe, as witness the works of many popular Czech authors, such as Jan Neruda, Karel Čapek. Besides France, Russia in particular cultivated the feuilleton genre since the 19th century, such a definition and use of a column still function in German and French press terminology. In Yiddish a feuilleton was generally humorous and informal in tone, two famous writers of Yiddish feuilletons were Sholem Aleichem and the Tunkeler, Yosef Tunkel. The characteristic of a column is also the lack of the group of fixed features in strong structural relation, thematic domain of a feuilleton column tends to be always up-to-date, focusing specifically on cultural, social and moral issues. An accented and active role by the columnist as the subject of the narration is very important characteristic of this genre
Roman feuilleton
–
A page from the Finnish newspaper Helsingfors Dagblad (1889), showing a “ground floor” feuilleton.
28.
Melodrama
–
A melodrama is a dramatic or literary work in which the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Characters are often drawn, and may appear stereotyped. In scholarly and historical contexts, melodramas are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term is now applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, movies. In modern contexts, the melodrama is generally pejorative, as it suggests that the work in question lacks subtlety, character development. By extension, language or behavior which resembles melodrama is often called melodramatic, the term originated from the early 19th-century French word mélodrame. It is derived from Greek melos, music, and French drame and this applies to both Victorian stage melodrama and 20th-century film melodrama. Movie director Sidney Lumet stressed the primacy of plot, saying in 2007 In a well-written drama, the characters in a well-written melodrama come out of the story. The relationship of melodrama to realism is complex, the protagonists of melodramatic works may either be ordinary people who are caught up in extraordinary events, or highly exaggerated and unrealistic characters. According to Singer, late Victorian and Edwardian melodrama combined a focus on realism in stage sets and props with anti-realism in character. Melodrama in this period strove for accuracy in the depiction of incredible. Novelist Wilkie Collins is noted for his attention to accuracy in detail in his works, beginning in the 18th century, melodrama was a technique of combining spoken recitation with short pieces of accompanying music. In such works, music and spoken dialogue typically alternated, although the music was also used to accompany pantomime. The earliest known examples are scenes in J. E. Eberlins Latin school play Sigismundus, the first full melodrama was Jean-Jacques Rousseaus Pygmalion, the text of which was written in 1762 but was first staged in Lyon in 1770. The overture and an Andante were composed by Rousseau, but the bulk of the music was composed by Horace Coignet, a different musical setting of Rousseaus Pygmalion by Anton Schweitzer was performed in Weimar in 1772, and Goethe wrote of it approvingly in Dichtung und Wahrheit. Pygmalion is a monodrama, written for one actor, some 30 other monodramas were produced in Germany in the fourth quarter of the 18th century. When two actors are involved the term duodrama may be used, georg Benda was particularly successful with his duodramas Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea. The sensational success of Bendas melodramas led Mozart to use two long melodramatic monologues in his opera Zaide, other later, and better-known examples of the melodramatic style in operas are the grave-digging scene in Beethovens Fidelio and the incantation scene in Webers Der Freischütz
Melodrama
–
Poster for
The Perils of Pauline (1914) a classic melodramatic film series
29.
Gothic novel
–
Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, the effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpoles novel. It originated in England in the half of the 18th century and had much success in the 19th, as witnessed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the name Gothic refers to the -medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular in England and Germany, the English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French Georgia. The novel usually regarded as the first Gothic novel is Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpoles declared aim was to combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism. Walpole published the first edition disguised as a romance from Italy discovered and republished by a fictitious translator. When Walpole admitted to his authorship in the edition, its originally favourable reception by literary reviewers changed into rejection. A romance with elements, and moreover void of didactical intention, was considered a setback. Walpoles forgery, together with the blend of history and fiction, contravened the principles of the Enlightenment and associated the Gothic novel with fake documentation. Clara Reeve, best known for her work The Old English Baron, set out to take Walpoles plot, the question now arose whether supernatural events that were not as evidently absurd as Walpoles would not lead the simpler minds to believe them possible. Ann Radcliffe developed the technique of the supernatural in which every seemingly supernatural intrusion is eventually traced back to natural causes. Among other elements, Ann Radcliffe introduced the figure of the Gothic villain. Radcliffes novels, above all The Mysteries of Udolpho, were best-sellers, however, along with most novels at the time, they were looked down upon by many well-educated people as sensationalist nonsense. Radcliffe also provided an aesthetic for the genre in an influential article On the Supernatural in Poetry, Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe concurrent with the development of the Gothic novel. The roman noir appeared in France, by writers as François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard dArnaud. In Germany, the Schauerroman gained traction with writers as Friedrich Schiller, with novels like The Ghost-Seer and these works were often more horrific and violent than the English Gothic novel. Matthew Gregory Lewiss lurid tale of debauchery, black magic
Gothic novel
–
Mary Shelley 's
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818) has come to define Gothic fiction in the Romantic period. Frontispiece to 1831 edition shown.
Gothic novel
–
The Castle of Otranto (1764) is usually regarded as the first Gothic novel.
Gothic novel
–
Edgar Allan Poe was an important reinterpreter of Gothic fiction.
Gothic novel
–
Robert Louis Stevenson 's
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) was a classic Gothic work of the 1880s, seeing many stage adaptations.
30.
Melmoth the Wanderer
–
Melmoth the Wanderer is an 1820 Gothic novel by Irish playwright, novelist and clergyman Charles Maturin. The novel is composed of a series of nested stories-within-stories, gradually revealing the story of Melmoths life, the novel offers social commentary on early-19th-century England, and denounces Roman Catholicism in favour of the virtues of Protestantism. John Melmoth, a student in Dublin, visits his dying uncle and he finds a portrait of a mysterious ancestor called Melmoth, the portrait is dated 1646. At his uncles funeral, John is told an old story about a stranger called Stanton who arrived looking for Melmoth the Traveller decades earlier. Stantons search for Melmoth is deemed to be madness and he is sent to a madhouse, Melmoth visits him there, and offers to free him, but Stanton refuses and escapes. Following his uncles wish, John burns the Melmoth portrait and he is visited by Melmoth in a dream, and later sees Melmoth laughing at a shipwreck. John tries to him, but slips and falls into the sea. He is saved from drowning by the survivor of the wreck. Alonzo Monçada tells his story, in which his family confines him to a monastery and he is mistreated by the monks, and his brother Juan arranges for him to escape with the help of a fellow monk, a parricide. The escape plan is a trap and Juan is killed, Monçada is taken to the prison of the Inquisition. There he is visited in his cell by Melmoth, who says he will help him escape, a fire breaks out, and in the confusion Monçada escapes. He meets a venerable Jewish scholar, Adonijah, who lives in a chamber decorated with the skeletons of his own family. In exchange for food and shelter, Adonijah compels Monçada to transcribe a manuscript for him, the Tale of the Indians tells of an island in the Indian Ocean which is rumored to be haunted by a white goddess named Immalee. In reality, Immalee is a castaway who grew up alone on the island and she is visited by Melmoth, who tells her he comes from the world that suffers. He tries to destroy her innocence, showing her the shortcomings of human societies and she falls in love with him and begs him to stay with her, but he departs. Three years later, Immalee, now named Isidora, has restored to her family in Madrid. Melmoth reappears and he and Isadora elope by night, he leads her to a chapel where they are married by an undead hermit. Isidoras father encounters a stranger at an inn who tells him The Tale of Guzmans Family, guzman is a wealthy Spanish merchant whose sister marries a poor German musician, Walberg
Melmoth the Wanderer
–
Melmoth, or Interior of a Dominican Convent in Madrid, illustrating Alonzo Monçada's story from the novel.
Eugène Delacroix, oil on canvas, 1831.
Melmoth the Wanderer
–
Title page of Volume 1, First edition
31.
Charles Robert Maturin
–
Charles Robert Maturin, also known as C. R. Maturin, was an Irish Protestant clergyman and a writer of Gothic plays and novels. His best known work is the novel Melmoth the Wanderer, Maturin was descended from Huguenots who found shelter in Ireland, one of whom was Gabriel Jacques Maturin who became Dean of St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin after Jonathan Swift in 1745. Charles Robert Maturin was born in Dublin and attended Trinity College, shortly after being ordained as curate of Loughrea, County Galway, in 1803, he moved back to Dublin as curate of St Peters Church. He lived in York Street with his father William, a Post Office official, and his mother, Fedelia Watson and his first three works were Gothic novels published under the pseudonym Dennis Jasper Murphy and were critical and commercial failures. They did, however, catch the attention of Sir Walter Scott, with their help, Maturins play, Bertram was staged in 1816 at the Drury Lane for 22 nights, with Edmund Kean starring in the lead role as Bertram. Financial success, however, eluded Maturin, as the run coincided with his fathers unemployment and another relatives bankruptcy. The Church of Ireland took note of these and earlier criticisms and, having discovered the identity of Bertrams author, forced to support his wife and four children by writing, he switched back from playwright to novelist after a string of his plays met with failure. He produced several novels in addition to Melmoth the Wanderer, including some on Irish subjects and The Albigenses, various poems have also been ascribed to Maturin on dubious grounds and appear to be the work of others. The prize-winning Lines on the Battle of Waterloo was published in 1816 under the name of the university graduate John Shee, the Universe appeared with Maturin’s name on the title page in 1821 but is now thought to be almost completely the work of James Wills. The exaggerated effectiveness of Maturins preaching can be gauged from the two series of sermons that he published, a contemporary account records that there had seldom been seen such crowds at St Peter’s. Despite the severe weather, people of all persuasions flocked to the church, in his obituary it was said that, did he leave no other monument whereon to rest his fame, these sermons alone would be sufficient. Maturin died in Dublin on 30 October 1824, in 1821 Maturins successful play was adapted into French as Bertram, ou le Pirate by Charles Nodier and Baron Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor and ran successfully for 53 nights in the following year. This version was the source for the more successful opera Il pirata, with a libretto by Felice Romani and music by Vincenzo Bellini. Victor Hugo admired the play and Alexandre Dumas based his Antony upon its hero in 1831, the play was also printed and frequently produced in the United States. The novel Melmoth the Wanderer was also published in French translation in 1821, in Balzac’s eyes this novel is taken up with the same idea to which we already owe the drama of Faust and out of which Lord Byron has cut his cloth since Manfred. Charles Baudelaire was also an admirer of Maturin’s novel, equating it with the poetry of Byron, a sister of Maturins wife married Charles Elgee, whose daughter Jane Francesca became the mother of Oscar Wilde. Thus Charles Maturin was Oscar Wildes great-uncle by marriage, Wilde discarded his own name and adopted the name of Maturins novel, Melmoth, during his exile in France. Maturins eldest son, William Basil Kingsbury Maturin, followed him into the ministry, one of these, Basil W. Maturin, died in the sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915
Charles Robert Maturin
–
Portrait of C. R. Maturin, 1819
32.
Emanuel Swedenborg
–
Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, theologian, revelator, and mystic. He is best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven, Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at age 53, he entered into a phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, in which he received revelation that he was appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ to write The Heavenly Doctrine to reform Christianity. For the remaining 28 years of his life, Swedenborg wrote eighteen published theological works and he termed himself a Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ in True Christian Religion, a work he published himself. Some followers of The Heavenly Doctrine believe that, of his theological works, Swedenborgs father, Jesper Swedberg, descended from a wealthy mining family. He travelled abroad and studied theology, and on returning home he was eloquent enough to impress the Swedish king, Charles XI, through the Kings influence he would later become professor of theology at Uppsala University and Bishop of Skara. Jesper took an interest in the beliefs of the dissenting Lutheran Pietist movement, sola fide is a tenet of the Lutheran Church, and Jesper was charged with being a pietist heretic. While controversial, the beliefs were to have a impact on his son Emanuels spirituality. Jesper furthermore held the belief that angels and spirits were present in everyday life. This also came to have a impact on Emanuel. In 1703–1709 Swedenborg lived in Erik Benzelius the youngers house and it was also a flourishing center of scientific ideas and discoveries. Swedenborg studied physics, mechanics and philosophy and read and wrote poetry, in 1715 Swedenborg returned to Sweden, where he devoted himself to natural science and engineering projects for the next two decades. A first step was his meeting with King Charles XII of Sweden in the city of Lund, the Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem, who became a close friend of Swedenborg, was also present. Swedenborgs purpose was to persuade the king to fund an observatory in northern Sweden, however, the warlike king did not consider this project important enough, but did appoint Swedenborg assessor-extraordinary on the Swedish Board of Mines in Stockholm. From 1716 to 1718, Swedenborg published a periodical entitled Daedalus Hyperboreus. One notable description was that of a machine, the same he had been sketching a few years earlier. In 1718 Swedenborg published an article that attempted to explain spiritual and mental events in terms of minute vibrations or tremulations, upon the death of Charles XII, Queen Ulrika Eleonora ennobled Swedenborg and his siblings
Emanuel Swedenborg
–
Memorial plaque at the former location of Emanuel Swedenborg's house at Hornsgatan on
Södermalm,
Stockholm.
Emanuel Swedenborg
–
Portrait of Swedenborg by
Carl Frederik von Breda.
Emanuel Swedenborg
–
The Flying Machine, sketched in his notebook from 1714. The operator would sit in the middle, and paddle himself through the air. See Smithsonian model and explanation by Dr. Paul Garber, former Curator of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, on the principle of flight of the aircraft. His descriptions may be found in a chapter of the Söderburg book, p. 32, or on the video clip at 5:48 on its timeline.
Emanuel Swedenborg
–
Arcana Cœlestia, first edition (1749), title page
33.
Charles X of France
–
Charles X was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. For most of his life he was known as the Count of Artois, an uncle of the uncrowned King Louis XVII, and younger brother to reigning Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him. His rule of almost six years ended in the July Revolution of 1830, which resulted in his abdication, exiled once again, Charles died in 1836 in Gorizia, then part of the Austrian Empire. He was the last of the French rulers from the branch of the House of Bourbon. Charles Philippe of France was born in 1757, the youngest son of the Dauphin Louis and his wife, Charles was created Count of Artois at birth by his grandfather, the reigning King Louis XV. As the youngest male in the family, Charles seemed unlikely ever to become king and his eldest brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, died unexpectedly in 1761, which moved Charles up one place in the line of succession. He was raised in childhood by Madame de Marsan, the Governess of the Children of France. At the death of his father in 1765, Charless oldest surviving brother, Louis Auguste and their mother Marie Josèphe, who never recovered from the loss of her husband, died in March 1767 from tuberculosis. This left Charles an orphan at the age of nine, along with his siblings Louis Auguste, Louis Stanislas, Count of Provence, Clotilde, Louis XV fell ill on 27 April 1774 and died on 10 May of smallpox at the age of 64. His grandson Louis-Auguste succeeded him as King Louis XVI of France, in November 1773, Charles married Marie Thérèse of Savoy. The marriage, unlike that of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, was consummated almost immediately, in 1775, Marie Thérèse gave birth to a boy, Louis Antoine, who was created Duke of Angoulême by Louis XVI. Three years later, in 1778, Charles second son, Charles Ferdinand, was born, in the same year Queen Marie Antoinette gave birth to her first child, Marie Thérèse, quelling all rumours that she could not bear children. Charles was thought of as the most attractive member of his family and his wife was considered quite ugly by most contemporaries, and he looked for company in numerous extramarital affairs. According to the Count of Hézecques, few beauties were cruel to him, later, he embarked upon a lifelong love affair with the beautiful Louise de Polastron, the sister-in-law of Marie Antoinettes closest companion, the Duchess of Polignac. Charles also struck up a friendship with Marie Antoinette herself. The closeness of the relationship was such that he was accused by Parisian rumour mongers of having seduced her. As part of Marie Antoinettes social set, Charles often appeared opposite her in the theatre of her favourite royal retreat. They were both said to be very talented amateur actors, Marie Antoinette played milkmaids, shepherdesses, and country ladies, whereas Charles played lovers, valets, and farmers
Charles X of France
–
Signature
Charles X of France
–
Portrait by
Baron Gérard, c.1829
Charles X of France
–
Charles Philippe with his younger sister Clotilde on a goat.
Charles X of France
–
Charles as Count of Artois (1798).
34.
Collective guilt
–
This concept is found in the Old Testament, some examples include the account of the Flood, the Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah and in some interpretations, the Book of Joshuas Achan. The practice of blaming the Jews for Jesus death is the longest example of collective responsibility, in this case, the blame was cast not only on the Jews of the time but upon successive generations. This comes from Matthew 27, 25-66 New International Version 25, All the people answered, His blood is on us, for example, in the Soviet Gulags, all members of a brigada were punished for bad performance of any of its members. Collective punishment is also practiced in situation of war, economic sanctions, contemporary systems of criminal law accept the principle that guilt shall only be personal. Others view groups as being entities in themselves, capable of holding guilt or responsibility independent of any of the groups members, the mass shootings of Nicholas IIs family in 1918 may be regarded as an example of such an approach. Terror groups of all kinds bomb civilians who are seen as responsible for the acts of their leaders. The state level bombing of civilians became popular in the Twentieth Century although ancient warriors would often slaughter whole cities if they resisted demands for capitulation or tribute and this was widely publicized by the Germans. During the occupation, for every German killed by a Pole, communities were held collectively responsible for the purported Polish counter-attacks against the invading German troops. Mass executions of hostages were conducted every single day during the Wehrmacht advance across Poland in September 1939. Collective punishment, even including measures that actually further harm the prospect of achieving targets, is applied as a measure to teach the workforce. Where corporate targets are achieved, however, rewards are carefully targeted to those perceived by management to have contributed, the impact on morale of this practice is commonly ignored as it is not measurable on balance sheets. 1959s Ben-Hur and 1983s prison drama Bad Boys depict collective responsibility, the play An Inspector Calls by J. B Priestley also features the theme of collective responsibility throughout the investigation process. In ethics, both methodological individualists and normative individualists question the validity of collective responsibility, normally, only the individual actor can accrue culpability for actions that they freely cause. The notion of collective culpability seems to deny individual moral responsibility, diffusion of responsibility Frankpledge Frith-borh German collective guilt Gonin Gumi Privilege Reprisal War crime White guilt White privilege Salles, Denis
Collective guilt
–
Emotions
35.
Louis XVI of France
–
Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution, during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas and these included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French nobility reacted to the reforms with hostility. Louis implemented deregulation of the market, advocated by his liberal minister Turgot. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt, from 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime and this led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louiss indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Régime. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy, Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. Out of seven children, he was the son of Louis, the Dauphin of France. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. A strong and healthy boy, but very shy, Louis-Auguste excelled in his studies and had a taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy. He enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather, and rough-playing with his brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence. From an early age, Louis-Auguste had been encouraged in another of his hobbies, locksmithing, upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband, and died on 13 March 1767, throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became
Louis XVI of France
–
King Louis XVI by
Antoine-François Callet
Louis XVI of France
–
Marie Antoinette Queen of France with her three eldest children,
Marie-Thérèse,
Louis-Charles and
Louis-Joseph. By
Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
Louis XVI of France
–
Louis XVI at the age of 20
Louis XVI of France
–
Louis-Charles, the dauphin of France and future Louis XVII. By
Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.
36.
Prince
–
A prince is a male ruler, monarch, or member of a monarchs or former monarchs family. Prince is also a title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess, the English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun princeps, from primus + capio, meaning the chief, most distinguished, ruler, prince. The Latin word prīnceps, became the title of the informal leader of the Roman senate some centuries before the transition to empire. Emperor Augustus established the position of monarch on the basis of principate. The term may be used of persons in various cultures. These titles were borne by courtesy and preserved by tradition, not law, in medieval and Early Modern Europe, there were as many as two hundred such territories, especially in Italy, Germany, and Gaelic Ireland. In this sense, prince is used of any and all rulers and this is the Renaissance use of the term found in Niccolò Machiavellis famous work, Il Principe. Most small territories designated as principalities during feudal eras were allodial and this is attested in some surviving styles for e. g. British earls, marquesses, and dukes are still addressed by the Crown on ceremonial occasions as high, in parts of the Holy Roman Empire in which primogeniture did not prevail, all legitimate agnates had an equal right to the familys hereditary titles. Gradual substitution of the title of Prinz for the title of Fürst occurred. Both Prinz and Fürst are translated into English as prince, but they not only different. This distinction had evolved before the 18th century for dynasties headed by a Fürst in Germany, note that the princely title was used as a prefix to his Christian name, which also became customary. Cadets of Frances other princes étrangers affected similar usage under the Bourbon kings, the post-medieval rank of gefürsteter Graf embraced but elevated the German equivalent of the intermediate French, English and Spanish nobles. By the 19th century, cadets of a Fürst would become known as Prinzen, the husband of a queen regnant is usually titled prince consort or simply prince, whereas the wives of male monarchs take the female equivalent of their husbands title. In Brazil, Portugal and Spain, however, the husband of a monarch was accorded the masculine equivalent of her title. To complicate matters, the style His/Her Highness, a prefix often accompanying the title of a dynastic prince, although the arrangement set out above is the one that is most commonly understood, there are also different systems. Depending on country, epoch, and translation, other usages of prince are possible, foreign-language titles such as Italian principe, French prince, German Fürst and Prinz, Russian knyaz, etc. are usually translated as prince in English
Prince
–
Cicero attacks
Catiline in the
Senate of the Roman Republic.
Prince
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Prince
–
Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, was the premier prince du sang during his lifetime (painted by Joost van Egmont).
Prince
–
José, Prince of Brazil,
Duke of Braganza, died before he could ascend to the throne of Portugal.
37.
Vautrin
–
Vautrin is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin, in prison, he got the nickname Trompe-la-Mort, because he managed to avoid the death sentence repeatedly. By the time the Comédie humaine series begins, Jacques Collin is an escaped convict, the character first appears in the La Comédie humaine series using the name of Vautrin, so he is usually referred to in literary criticism under this name. Balzac was inspired to the character by Eugène François Vidocq a former criminal who became chief of the Paris police. Little is known about Collins early life, from the novels it can be gathered that he is born in or around 1779, has an above-average education and that he worked as an apprentice in a bank—a position his aunt Jacqueline had obtained for him. In the first decade of the 19th century he first came into contact with the criminal underworld, when a young Italian soldier that Collin was interested in committed a forgery, Collin took the responsibility and was sentenced to five years hard labour in 1810. Several attempted escapes have increased the sentence to 20 years by 1818, in Father Goriot, set in late 1818/early 1819, Collin lived under the name of Vautrin in the House Vauquer after an escape from the Bagne of Toulon in 1815. He is described as a man, who likes to crack jokes, speaks rather intimately with everyone. He also is very adept at repairing locks, Bibi-Lupin asks them to help arrest Vautrin but they need proof that he really is Jacques Collin. He gives them a drug that will knock Vautrin unconscious, so they can search on his shoulders for the branded letters T. F. which stand for Travaux, the plan works and Collin is arrested and imprisoned in Rochefort. Later, it is revealed that Collin escapes prison disguised as a guard escorting another prisoner, some years later, in the novel Illusions Perdues, one Abbé Carlos Herrera stops Lucien de Rubempré from drowning himself in the Charente. He strikes a pact with Lucien, He will make him rich and successful, in Splendeurs et misères de courtisanes, beginning in 1824, Herrera and Lucien have moved to Paris. Here we quickly learn that Herrera is really Collin, Collin realizes that they can get a lot of money out of Nucingen if he becomes Esthers lover. The money would then serve Lucien to marry the rich, and they get the needed million together, but Esther kills herself after having had to sleep with Nucingen in May 1830. Her suicide note is not discovered, money is missing from her house and Herrera, the police suspect Herrera of being Collin but cant prove it. Collin, pretending that he is Luciens true father to explain his affection for the young man, when Esthers suicide note and testament are found, Herreras and Luciens liberation seems to be only a matter of formalities. But Lucien cracks under questioning and reveals Herreras true identity, Lucien subsequently hangs himself, but not without retracting everything he said, leaving doubts about Herreras identity again. Three of Collins former partners in crime are also in prison and he learns from them that his friend Théodore Calvi is awaiting execution and that another of the men, La Pouraille, also has no hopes of escaping the death sentence
Vautrin
–
Vautrin and Eugene de Rastignac, in
Father Goriot.
Vautrin
–
Vautrin over the body of Esther Van Gobseck, in
The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans.
38.
La Maison du chat-qui-pelote
–
La Maison du chat-qui-pelote is a novel by Honoré de Balzac. It is the work in the Scènes de la vie privée. First entitled Gloire et Malheur, this novel was completed at Maffliers in October 1829. The first edition was followed by four revised editions, the final edition, published by Furne in 1842, appeared under the title of La Maison du chat-qui-pelote and was itself corrected indefinitely. The idea for the story came from the business run by the Sallambiers on the maternal side of Balzacs family. The work is dedicated to Mademoiselle Marie de Montheau, Théodore, a winner of the Prix de Rome and a knight of the Legion of Honor, is famous for his interiors and chiaroscuro effects in imitation of the Dutch School. He makes an excellent reproduction of the interior of the Cat and Racket, the affair blossoms with the help of Madame Guillaumes younger cousin Madame Roguin, who is already acquainted with Théodore. The lovers become engaged, somewhat against the best wishes of Augustines parents, in 1808 Augustine marries Théodore at the local church of Saint-Leu, on the same day her elder sister Virginie marries Lebas. The marriage is not a happy one, Augustine adores Sommervieux but is incapable of understanding him as an artist. Although she is more refined than her parents, her education, théodores passion for her cools and she is treated with disdain by his fellow artists. Augustine is shocked to learn that Madame de Carigliano sees marriage as a form of warfare, the duchess then returns to Augustine her own portrait, telling her that if she cannot conquer her husband with this weapon, she is not a woman. Augustine, however, does not understand how to turn such a weapon against her husband, but when the artist sees the portrait hanging in her bedroom and asks how it came to be there, she foolishly reveals that it was returned to her by the Duchesse de Carigliano. I did not know that she had it, replies Augustine, Théodore realizes that his wife is incapable of seeing the painting as he sees it - a consummate work of art. Instead of falling in love with its subject, he regards its return as a slap in the face from his mistress and his vanity wounded, he throws a fit and destroys the portrait, vowing vengeance upon the duchess. By morning Augustine has become resigned to her fate and her loveless marriage comes to an end shortly thereafter when she dies of a broken heart at the age of twenty-seven. Bells translation is based on the corrected Furne edition of Balzacs works, which is generally considered definitive
La Maison du chat-qui-pelote
–
At the sign of the Cat and Racket
39.
Le Bal de Sceaux
–
Le Bal de Sceaux is the fifth work of Honoré de Balzac, one of the oldest texts of la Comédie Humaine. The first edition of this novella was published in 1830 by Mame and it was republished in 1835 by Madame Charles-Béchet, in 1839 in the Charpentier edition, and then in 1842 in the first volume of the Furne edition of la Comédie Humaine. In writing this novella Balzac seems to have inspired by the fables of La Fontaine, especially La fille. There is also an allusion to La Fontaine in the choice of Émilie’s surname, the plot is similar to that of another of Balzacs works, La Vieille Fille, the subject of which hesitates between several suitors and finishes by making do with the only one left. A similar plot informs Aleksandr Pushkins verse novel Eugene Onegin, which was published in form between 1825 and 1832. Despite his refined appearance and aristocratic bearing, the unknown never tells his identity and seems interested in nobody but his sister, but he is not insensible to the attention Émilie gives him and he accepts the invitation of Émilie’s father, the Comte de Fontaine. Émilie and Maximilien soon fall in love, the Comte de Fontaine, concerned for his daughter, decides to investigate this mysterious young man, and he discovers him on the Rue du Sentier, a simple cloth merchant, which horrifies Émilie. Piqued, she marries a 72-year-old uncle for his title of Vice Admiral, several years after her marriage, Émilie discovers that Maximilien is not a clothier at all, but in fact a Vicomte de Longueville who has become a Peer of France. The young man explains why he secretly tended a store, he did it in order to support his family, sacrificing himself for his sick sister and for his brother. Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine The Ball at Sceaux at Project Gutenberg Original French text of Le Bal de Sceaux
Le Bal de Sceaux
–
The Ball at Sceaux
40.
La Bourse
–
La Bourse is a short story by the French novelist Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1832 by Mame-Delaunay as one of the Scènes de la vie privée in La Comédie humaine. Later editions of the work were brought out by Béchet in 1835 and by Charpentier in 1839, the young painter Hippolyte Schinner falls from a step-ladder while working in his atelier and is knocked unconscious. The noise of his fall alerts two of his neighbours, Adélaïde Leseigneur and her mother Madame de Rouville, who occupy the apartment immediately below, the two women revive the young man and an acquaintance is struck up. Inevitably, the young painter falls in love with Adélaïde and over the weeks he pays frequent visits to her apartment. There he is warmly welcomed, but he cannot help noticing the unmistakable signs of poverty – a poverty that the two women are at obvious pains to hide. Hippolyte discovers that Madame de Rouvilles late husband was a captain who died at Batavia from wounds received in an engagement with an English vessel. The Comte de Kergarouet, it transpires, is a comrade of Baron de Rouville. Hippolyte offers to draw a portrait of Monsieur de Rouville, a sketch of whom is hanging in the apartment. Two months later, when the portrait is hung in Madame de Rouvilles apartment. Hippolyte, however, suspects that the old man is offering him the price of both portraits while paying for his own, and he declines the offer. Despite his suspicions that the two women make are living in some mysterious and disreputable manner, Hippolyte continues his visits, the young man suspects he has been robbed by the women and he stops visiting them. Over the following week he pines away and his colleagues seem to confirm his worst suspicions – that Adélaïde is a prostitute and Madame de Rouville her procuress. Even his mother notices that he is out of sorts, but a chance meeting on the stairs outside Adélaïdes apartment is enough to dispel all Hippolytes suspicions. He decides that he was wrong to ignore the promptings of his heart and that evening he calls on the two women. Madame de Rouville suggests a game of cards, the blood rushed to Hippolytes heart with such force that he was near fainting. The new purse, substituted for his own, and which contained his fifteen Louis dor, was worked with gilt beads, the rings and tassels bore witness to Adélaïdes good taste, and she had no doubt spent all her little hoard in ornamenting this pretty piece of work. It was impossible to say with greater delicacy that the gift could only be repaid by some proof of affection
La Bourse
–
Illustration from an 1897 edition by
Georges Cain
La Bourse
–
Honoré de Balzac
La Bourse
–
Aeneas describes to Dido the fall of
Troy, by
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1815)
41.
Modeste Mignon
–
Modeste Mignon is a novel by the French writer Honoré de Balzac. It is the fifth of the Scènes de la vie privée in La Comédie humaine, the first part of the novel was serialized in a bowdlerized edition in the Journal des débats in April, May and July 1844. A revised and expanded version of the work was published by Chlenowski in two parts under the titles Modeste Mignon and Les Trois amoureux. The third and final edition of the novel appeared in 1846 as part of Furnes complete edition of La Comédie humaine, Modeste Mignon was the third work in Volume 4, or the twenty-third of the Scènes de la vie privée. Modeste Mignon, a provincial woman of romantic temperament, imagines herself to be in love with the famous Parisian poet Melchior de Canalis. She corresponds with him, but he is unmoved by her attentions, Canalis invites his secretary Ernest de la Brière to deal with the matter. Ernest replies to Modeste in Canalis name, a dangerous intrigue ensues, the plot is complicated by the interference of Modestes family and friends, who suspect that she has secretly taken a lover. The wily dwarf Butscha, who loves Modeste as a knight might have loved a lady far above his station, is determined to unmask the man. Ernest reveals his identity, but Modeste feels humiliated and casts him off. When Modestes true worth becomes generally known, Canalis takes a renewed interest in her, but his secretary is no longer his only rival, a local wealthy potentate the Duc dHérouville now regards the nouveau-riche Modeste Mignon as a suitable match and throws his hat into the ring. The second part of the novel is based on a traditional story-type. Ernest, Canalis and the Duc dHérouville are invited to Ingouville to compete for the hand of Modeste. Still smarting from the played on her by Ernest, Modeste is determined to choose between the passionate advances of the poet and the prospect of becoming a duchess should she accept Hérouville. Butscha, however, who realizes that Ernest is the one who loves her, is equally determined to expose the pretensions of Canalis. Thanks to Butschas intrigues and her fathers good sense, Modeste chooses Ernest and the two are married
Modeste Mignon
–
Modeste Mignon
Modeste Mignon
–
Honoré de Balzac
42.
Albert Savarus
–
Rosalie is the only daughter of the Wattevilles, a distinguished family of Besançon. Her father is timid and spends his time working on a lathe, while her mother is quite proud. Her mother is trying to encourage Rosalie to take an interest in M. de Soulas, at a dinner party, the Abbe reports the spectacular success of a lawyer Savaron, who has settled quietly in the town. Rosalie takes an interest in the lawyer, who is good-looking, Savaron is successful in several cases, and it becomes known that he has started a local literary journal. Rosalie persuades her father to subscribe, and reads a story penned by Savaron. In Savarons story, two men are touring in Switzerland. From a boat on a lake, Rudolfe, one of the young men and he instantly decides to stop in the village, and makes enquiries. He is told that the girl is a young English girl staying with her grandfather who has there for his health with a dumb girl as a servant. Rudolfe tries to obtain invitations and eventually creeps into the garden and it emerges that they are Italian émigrés who are hiding in Switzerland. Furthermore, it out that the girl, Francesca, is married to the old man. Rudolfe befriends them and enters into a love affair with the girl. They are in love and agree to wait until the old man dies to get married, news comes that their exile has been lifted and the Italians depart to Geneva, where Rudolfe is to meet them later. When he gets there, it out that Francesca is a princess. Rudolfe is invited to the house, and they swear undying love, when Rosalie has read the story, she suspects it is the true story of Savaron, and becomes jealous. She tricks her servant into obtaining Savarons correspondence, and after a letter to Leopold, finds letters to the Princess, Savaron tries to make his name in the town and stands for elections. There is much complex politicking to obtain him the vote, wrapped up in it is a lawsuit over M. de Wattevilles land. Rosalie persuades her father to enlist the help of Savaron, but he refuses to come into the open about it until after the election, suddenly just before the election, Savaron disappears and is never heard of again. Rosalies mother tries to push the marriage with M. de Soulas, thus they fall out and after the death of her father, Rosalie is left in very difficult circumstances
Albert Savarus
–
Illustration from an 1897 edition by Oreste Cortazzo
43.
La Vendetta (Balzac)
–
La Vendetta is a novel by the French writer Honoré de Balzac. It is the eighth of the Scènes de la vie privée in La Comédie humaine, the novel was first published in 1830 by Mame et Delaunay-Vallée. In 1842 it appeared in the first Furne edition of La Comédie humaine, La Vendetta was the fourth work in Volume 1, making it the fourth of the Scènes de la vie privée. The manuscript of La Vendetta, which is preserved in the Lovenjoul Collection of the Institut de France in Paris, is in three parts, LAtelier, La Désobéissance and Le Mariage. The novel was completed in Paris in January 1830, when Balzac was assisting the Duchesse dAbrantès with her Mémoires de lEmpire, the work was divided into a prologue and four sections entitled, LAtelier, La Désobéissance, Le Mariage and Le Châtiment. In May 1832 Mame-Delaunay brought out a second edition, by now the Scènes de la vie privée had grown to four volumes. La Vendetta retained its place immediately after the preface in the first volume, in July 1835 Mme Béchet published a third edition of La Vendetta as part of a twelve-volume collection of Balzacs works entitled Etude de Moeurs au XIXe siècle. In this edition La Vendetta was no longer divided into sections and was placed at the end of the first volume, Balzac altered the marriage scene for this edition. In October 1839 Charpentier brought out an edition of La Vendetta in a newly revised and corrected edition of the Scènes de la vie privée. La Vendetta was the first work in the volume of the series. In July 1842 a fifth edition of La Vendetta appeared in Furnes first publication of La Comédie humaine, La Vendetta was the fourth work in the first volume of this five-volume series. La Vendetta is a short work relating the fate of Ginevra Piombo, the daughter of proud Corsican immigrants. But Ginevra refuses to yield to her fathers demands and she, Ginevra gives birth to a child, but she and the child die on the very day that Monsieur Piombo finally relents and decides to assist the impoverished couple. Before he can act, however, Luigi visits him and gives him the tresses of his deceased daughter and our two families were doomed to exterminate each other. Here is all that remains of her, he says, laying Ginevras long black hair upon the table, Ginevras parents are shaken, as though a stroke of lightning has blasted them. He has spared me a shot, for he is dead, says Bartolomeo, slowly, toulouse, PU du Mirail,2006, p. 265-81. Pierrette Jeoffroy-Faggianelli, « De Paoli à La Vendetta », LAnnée balzacienne,1975, franc Schuerewegen, « La Toile déchirée, texte, tableau et récit dans trois nouvelles de Balzac », Poétique, fév. The Vendetta at Project Gutenberg Original French text of La Vendetta Table des notices La Vendetta, audio version
La Vendetta (Balzac)
–
La Vendetta
44.
Une double famille
–
Une double famille is a lengthy short story by Honoré de Balzac, which first appeared in 1830 under the title La femme vertueuse. It was subsequently published in 1832 by Mame et Delaunay as part of Balzacs Scènes de la vie privée, in 1835 it appeared, in an edition by Madame Béchet, in the collection Études de mœurs. The novel only acquired its present title in 1842, when the fifth appeared in Volume I of the Scenes from Private Life. The novel comprises two parts, two stories, which are two sides of the same story. The plot revolves around an act of adultery - a double life, from the beginning, the setting recalls the atmosphere of Balzacs Ferragus. In a squalid house, in a neighbourhood, an old woman offers an angelic creature - her own daughter - to passers by. The Comte de Granville, unhappily married to a sanctimonious woman, an aristocrat and a magistrate of integrity, he had made a name for himself in the Gondreville affair, which Balzac would later recount in Une ténébreuse affaire. Madame du Granvilles home is, in his eyes, a place of cold, arid solemnity, of moral rectitude, whereas the grisettes flat, like that of La Torpille, is a place of delights. Caroline Crochard, a young girl living with her mother in squalid conditions. The Comte de Glanville, an aristocrat who was married at too young an age to a woman. Balzac takes up their story some years later, Caroline is now richly installed in a luxurious apartment with two children, whose father, known to Caroline as Roger de Granville, cannot acknowledge them on account of his marriage. Eventually Caroline abandons de Granville and takes up with a young man. This story can be considered a work of Balzac, who is not particularly known for his achievements in the genre of melodrama. His talent as a portraitist, however, shines through in the character of Caroline, repertory of the Comedie Humaine A Second Home at Project Gutenberg Original French text of A Second Home Une double famille, audio version
Une double famille
–
A Second Home
45.
Honorine (novel)
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Balzac has a subtle way of approaching his plot indirectly and embedding a story within a story. The story is perhaps a common one of a trapped in a marriage. They are having a party with guests from Paris. When Maurice was young, he became secretary to Count Octave, the count was very good to him but seemed very sad and mysterious as if hiding some past misfortune. Eventually Maurice discovers that he had married, but his wife had left him. She, Honorine, had brought up with him from a very early age, having been adopted by his parents. They had become married almost as a matter of course, however after a few months she just disappeared. Octave then discovered she had gone off with an adventurer who had abandoned her and she had the child but lived full of remorse, and resisted all attempts of Octave to get in touch with her. Octave is still devoted to her and secretly helps her in her business of flower arranging, however she still refuses to have anything to do with him. The Count therefore gets Maurice to act as a go between, arranging for him to occupy the next to her, and pose as a misogynistic flower breeder. Eventually Maurice makes contact and indirectly puts the Count’s case, Honorine is still too overcome with remorse and shame. Eventually however she agrees to see the count, and then back to live with him. Maurice has to leave the Count’s company because of the part he played, two years after, he heard of the death of Honorine, and soon after was visited by the Count who had grown old before his time, and who died shortly after departing. The story is full of discussion about the meaning of relationships, there is also the implication that he had in fact fallen in love with Honorine himself, which is why he avoided marriage initially. Maurice Onorina Pedrotti Count Octave Honorine The Human Comedy by Honoré de Balzac hosted by Carnegie Mellon University
Honorine (novel)
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Honorine and Maurice
46.
Old Goriot
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Le Père Goriot is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac, included in the Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Originally published in form during the winter of 1834/35, Le Père Goriot is widely considered Balzacs most important novel. It marks the first serious use by the author of characters who had appeared in other books, the novel is also noted as an example of his realist style, using minute details to create character and subtext. The novel takes place during the Bourbon Restoration, which brought changes to French society. The city of Paris also impresses itself on the characters – especially young Rastignac, Balzac analyzes, through Goriot and others, the nature of family and marriage, providing a pessimistic view of these institutions. The novel was released to mixed reviews, some critics praised the author for his complex characters and attention to detail, others condemned him for his many depictions of corruption and greed. A favorite of Balzacs, the book quickly won popularity and has often been adapted for film. It gave rise to the French expression Rastignac, a climber willing to use any means to better his situation. Le Père Goriot begins in June 1819, following Napoleons defeat at Waterloo, tension was mounting between the aristocracy, which had returned with King Louis XVIII, and the bourgeoisie produced by the Industrial Revolution. During this era, France saw a tightening of social structures, by one estimate, almost three-quarters of Parisians did not make the 500–600 francs a year required for a minimal standard of living. At the same time, this made possible a social mobility unthinkable during the Ancien Régime of previous centuries. Individuals willing to adapt themselves to the rules of this new society could sometimes ascend into its upper echelons from modest backgrounds, when Balzac began writing Le Père Goriot in 1834, he had written several dozen books, including a stream of pseudonymously published potboiler novels. In 1829 he published Les Chouans, the first novel to which he signed his own name, this was followed by Louis Lambert, Le Colonel Chabert, one of these aspects which fascinated Balzac was the life of crime. In the winter of 1828–29, a French grifter-turned-policeman named Eugène François Vidocq published a pair of sensationalized memoirs recounting his criminal exploits, Balzac met Vidocq in April 1834, and used him as a model for a character named Vautrin he was planning for an upcoming novel. In the summer of 1834 Balzac began to work on a story about a father who is rejected by his daughters. He wrote the first draft of Le Père Goriot in forty autumn days and it was released as a novel in March 1835 by the publishing house of Werdet, who also published the second edition in May. A much-revised third edition was published in 1839 by Charpentier, as was his custom, Balzac made copious notes and changes on proofs he received from publishers, so that the later editions of his novels were often significantly different from the earliest. In the case of Le Père Goriot, he changed a number of the characters into persons from other novels he had written, the character Eugène de Rastignac had appeared as an old man in Balzacs earlier philosophical fantasy novel La Peau de chagrin
Old Goriot
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Title page engraving from an 1897 edition of Le Père Goriot, by an unknown artist; published by George Barrie & Son in Philadelphia
Old Goriot
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French criminal
Eugène François Vidocq was the basis for the character Vautrin in Le Père Goriot.
Old Goriot
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1901 edition of The Works of Honoré de Balzac, including Father Goriot
Old Goriot
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The
Charter of 1814 granted by King
Louis XVIII of France created a legal structure dominated by wealth and serves as the backdrop for Rastignac's maneuvers in Le Père Goriot.
47.
Le Colonel Chabert (novel)
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Le Colonel Chabert is an 1832 novella by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac. It is included in his series of known as La Comédie humaine, which depicts and parodies French society in the period of the Restoration. This novella, originally published in Le Constitutionnel, was adapted for six different motion pictures, Colonel Chabert marries Rose Chapotel, a prostitute. Colonel Chabert then becomes a French cavalry officer who is held in esteem by Napoleon Bonaparte. After being severely wounded in the Battle of Eylau, Chabert is recorded as dead, however, he survives and after extricating himself from his own grave is nursed back to health by local peasants. It takes several years for him to recover, returning to Paris, he discovers his widow has married the social climber, Count Ferraud, and has liquidated all of Chaberts belongings. Seeking to regain his name and monies that were given away as inheritance, he hires Derville. Derville, who represents the Countess Ferraud, warns Chabert against accepting a settlement bribe from the Countess. In the end, Chabert walks away empty-handed and spends the rest of his days in an asylum, in Le Colonel Chabert Balzac juxtaposes two world-views, the Napoleonic value-system, founded on honour and military valour, and that of the Restoration. Chabert was not killed at the Battle of Eylau, though it was thought that he was and he struggles back to life, but cannot reclaim his identity. His “widow”, who is actually his wife, and who fittingly was a prostitute in her adult years, is now the Comtesse Ferraud. All that matters in the era is social rank based upon the possession of money. This theme of the trenchant purity of the way of life is something to which Balzac returns in La Rabouilleuse. Hyacinthe Chabert, Colonel Countess Ferraud Count Ferraud Derville Bouchard Godeschal Desroches Simonin Boutin Chamberlain Delbecq A Notary 1911, directed by André Calmettes and Henri Pouctal. Starring Charles Le Bargy and Rita Pergament, starring Werner Krauss, Mathias Wieman, Hans Brausewetter and Helene Thimig. Starring Vladislav Strzhelchik, Oleg Basilashvili, Mikhail Boyarsky, Honoré de Balzac La Comédie humaine List of characters of La Comédie humaine The Human Comedy by Honoré de Balzac hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac from Project Gutenberg, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Le Colonel Chabert, audio version
Le Colonel Chabert (novel)
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Le Colonel Chabert
48.
Le Contrat de mariage
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Le Contrat de mariage is an 1835 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac and included in the Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in Bordeaux, it describes the marriage of a Parisian gentleman, Paul de Manerville, to the beautiful but spoiled Spanish heiress, Natalie Evangelista. He falls in love with a girl named Natalie Evangelista. So strong are his illusions, that even at the end of the novel he remains unaware of his wife’s infidelities, a Marriage Contract is one of Balzac’s great studies of human illusions, in this case the illusions of married life. Paul is a subtly conveyed example of the husband, “the voluntary dupe” who prefers “to suffer rather than complain. ”The novel is notable for treating not only the leading up to the marriage. A Marriage Contract also has one of Balzac’s classic dissections of the techniques and wiles of professional negotiators, the Marriage Contract at Project Gutenberg
Le Contrat de mariage
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An 1899 illustration by W. Boucher for Le Contrat de mariage
49.
La Rabouilleuse
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La Rabouilleuse is an 1842 novel by Honoré de Balzac as part of his series La Comédie humaine. The Black Sheep is the title of the English translation by Donald Adamson published by Penguin Classics and it tells the story of the Bridau family, trying to regain their lost inheritance after a series of unfortunate mishaps. Though for years an overlooked work in Balzacs canon, it has gained popularity, the Guardian listed The Black Sheep 12 on its list of the 100 Greatest Novels of All Time. The action of the novel is divided between Paris and Issoudun, Agathe Rouget, who was born in Issoudun, is sent to be raised by her maternal relatives, the Descoings in Paris by her father Doctor Rouget. She suspects that he is not her true father, there she marries a man named Bridau, and they have two sons, Philippe, and Joseph. Monsieur Bridau dies relatively young, Philippe, who is the eldest and his mothers favourite, becomes a soldier in Napoleons armies, Philippe, the elder son is shown to be a courageous soldier, but is also a heavy drinker and gambler. He resigns from the army after the Bourbon Restoration out of loyalty to Napoleon, Joseph is a dedicated artist, and the more loyal son, but his mother does not understand his artistic vocation. After leaving the army Philippe took part in the failed Champ dAsile settlement in Texas, on returning to France he is unemployed, and lives with his mother and Madame Descoings, and becomes a financial drain on them, especially due to his hard drinking and gambling lifestyle. Philippe becomes estranged from his mother and brother after stealing money from Madame Descoings, Philippe is soon afterwards arrested for his involvement in an anti-government conspiracy. Meanwhile in Issoudun, Agathes elder brother Jean-Jacques takes in an ex-soldier named Max Gilet as a boarder, Max is suspected of being his illegitimate half brother. Max and Jean-Jacques servant Flore Brazier work together to control Jean-Jacques, Max leads a group of young men who call themselves The Knights of Idleness who frequently play practical jokes around the town. Two of these are against a Spanish immigrant named Fario, destroying his cart and his grain and it is now that Joseph and his mother travel to Issoudun to try to persuade Jean-Jacques to give Agathe money to help cover Philippes legal costs. They stay with their friends the Hochons, Jean-Jacques and Max only give them some old paintings, but only Joseph recognises their value. Joseph tells of his luck to the Hochons, not realising that their grandsons are friends of Max, afterwards when Max discovers the value of the paintings he coerces Joseph into returning them. Then one night whilst out walking Fario stabs Max, as Max is recovering he decides to blame Joseph for the stabbing. Joseph is arrested, but later cleared and released, and he, in the meantime, Philippe has been convicted for his plotting. However, he cooperates with authorities and gets a sentence of five years Police supervision in Autun. Philippe gets his lawyer to change the location to Issoudun in order to claim his mothers inheritance for himself and he challenges Max to a duel with swords, and kills him in the duel
La Rabouilleuse
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Illustration from an 1897 edition by Oreste Cortazzo
