Taine

Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe (b. 1828), French historian and critic, was born at Vouziers in Ardennes, and educated in Paris at the College Bourbon and the Ecole Normale. In 1864 he became professor at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. His chief work is Les Origines de la France Contemporaine (1875-90), in which he attacks the Revolution. The Histoire de la Litterature Anglaise is a remarkable example of the attempt to apply the inductive method to literary studies.