Murger

Murger, Henri, born in 1822 at Paris, was put as a boy into a lawyer's office, but soon wearied of the business. Count Tolstoy employed him for a time as secretary, but for ten years he seems to have led an obscure life of drudgery and dissipation. In 1848 he recorded his experiences in the Vie de Bolieme, and the book by its candour and vigour at once became popular. Claude et Marianne, Le Rendezvous, Le Pays Latin, Adeline Priotat, Let Buveurs d'Eau, and Le Sabot Rouge, with a volume of verse, Les Nuits d'Hiver, came from his pen before 1859, when his health broke down, and he died in a private hospital two years later.