Ste Beuve

Ste.-Beuve, CHARLES AUGUSTIN DE (1804-69) an eminent French critic, was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer. On his mother's side he was of English descent, and this accounts for his early attraction to English literature. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the College Charlemagne at Paris to finish his education, and, after studying medicine he followed the profession of a doctor for a time; but a love for literature and some chance contributions of his to the papers decided him in giving it up. He joined the romantic movement after reading Hugo's poems, which impressed him greatly. In 1828 appeared his first work, a Tableau Historique et Critique de la Poesie Francaise et du Theatre Francais all XVI, Siecle, an excellent work, somewhat enlarged by him in later years. He published a volume of poems in 1829 over the pseudonym of "Joseph Delorme," but the second -collection of poems, Les Consolations (1830), were much better. About this time he began to write for the leading periodicals, and began his admirable Portraits Litteraires, which were followed much later by his still more remarkable Causeries du Lundi, which came out every Monday in La Constitutionnel newspaper, and proved him one of the finest of critics. To full knowledge of his subjects were added an inimitable style and exquisite critical discernment. In 1840 he obtained from M. Thiers the post of keeper of the Mazarin Library, and in 1845 he entered the Academy, succeeding Casimir Delavigne. He supported the Government after the coup d'etat of 1851, and received the appointment of professor of Latin poetry at the College de France, but the students, resenting his conversion to monarchism, refused to hear him, and he was obliged to accept a similar position at the Ecole Normale. Napoleon III. made him a senator in 1865. His works are not numerous in one sense, though they fill many volnmes. The Causeries occupy about twenty of them, and other works of his deserving of mention are Histoire de Port Royal (1840-62), Portraits de Femmes (1844), and Portraits Contemporains (1846). His Poesies Complete appeared in 1840. He wrote numberless prefaces and introductory essays.