SAINTE-BEUVE, CHARLES A. 



627 



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SAINTE-BEUVE, CHAKLES AUGUSTIN, a 

 French poet and critic, academician and Sena- 

 tor, born at Bolougne-sur-Mer, December 23, 

 1804; died in Paris, October 13, 1869. His 

 father, a government officer, died two months 

 before his. birth ; and his mother, a woman of 

 remarkable intellectual abilities and of English 

 descent, superintended his education, which 

 was conducted at first at Boulogne, and after 

 the age of fourteen in Paris, at the institution 

 Landry and the College of Charlemagne. On 

 leaving college, he was strongly attracted to a 

 literary life, but the necessity of entering upon 

 some calling which should afford him a com- 

 petent livelihood led him to enter the medical 

 profession. He was appointed assistant-sur- 

 geon to the Hospital St. Louis, but his longings 

 for literary distinction ' led him to write much 

 for the press. When Victor Hugo's " Odes 

 and Ballads" were published and attracted 

 the attention of the public, Sainte-Beuve could 

 no longer endure his profession. Eesigning 

 his situation as assistant-surgeon, he announced 

 his intention of devoting himself thenceforth 

 to poetry and general literature. He formed 

 the acquaintance of Victor Hugo, and attached 

 himself to the editorial staff of the Cenacle in 

 company with Alfred de Musset, the two Des- 

 champs, etc. In 1828 appeared his first volume, 

 "An Historical and Critical Tableau of French 

 Poetry and the French Theatre in the XVIth 

 Century." This work gave him a high repu- 

 tation as a critical writer. The "Poems of 

 Joseph Delorme " followed the next year, but 

 were not so well received. In 1830 " The Con- 

 solations," a volume of poems and aphorisms, 

 very much in the style of Pascal, Fe"nelon, 

 find Madame Guyon, whose Christian mysti- 

 cism was at this time exerting a powerful in- 

 fluence on his mind. The Cenacle went down 

 in the Revolution of 1830, and Sainte-Beuve, 

 drawn toward the doctrines of St. Simon for 

 the time, became one of the editors of the Globe, 

 then under the direction of Pierre Leroux. This 

 connection did not last long, and Sainte-Beuve 

 had set out for Belgium, where he was offered 

 a professorship, when M. Buloz persuaded 

 him to commence in the Revue des Deux Mon- 

 des a series of literary portraits, in which he 

 displayed great skill. He also became a con- 

 tributor to the National, where he manifested 

 a decided leaning toward the school of Diderot 

 and Voltaire. His religious views at this pe- 

 riod seemed to fluctuate with the seasons. In 

 1832 he was a disciple and friend of Lam en- 

 nuis and the Abbe" Gerbet, and his Volupte, 

 which the critics have called " a romance of 

 the flesh and the spirit," was one of the re- 

 sults of their influence upon him. Five years 

 later he visited Switzerland and determined 

 to write a " History of Port Koyal," the illus- 



trious journalists being now the objects of his 

 admiration, as they had been in 1831 the sub- 

 jects of his satire. Another volume of his 

 poems, Pensees d?Aout, appeared about this 

 time. His " History of Port Royal," in five 

 volumes, progressed slowly, being twenty years 

 (1840-'60) in publication. In 1840 M. Thiers 

 appointed him librarian of the Mazarin Li- 

 brary, and five years later he was admitted 

 to the French Academy to fill the vacancy 

 caused by the death of Casimer Delavigne. 

 In 1848 he delivered a course of lectures on 

 "French Literature at the Commencement of 

 the Nineteenth Century," at Lie"ge, which at- 

 tracted great attention, and were afterward 

 published in two volumes. 



In 1850 he joined the Constitutionnel, and 

 contributed to that journal an admirable col- 

 lection of literary biography and criticism, his 

 " Causer ies du Lundi " (Monday Literary Gos- 

 sip), which form an improved continuation of 

 his "Portraits," and fill a series of volumes. 

 Soon after the coup d'etat of December, 1851, 

 he was attached to the Monitew, and was 

 Professor of Latin Poetry at the College of 

 France, but the ingubordination of the students 

 exhibited at his first lectures obliged him to 

 retire, and in 1857 he was appointed profess- 

 or at the Normal School. The Emperor sig- 

 nalized his departure for Algeria at the end 

 of 1865 by raising M. Sainte-Beuve to the 

 dignity of Senator ; and in 1867 he was a 

 member of the Committee of Five appointed 

 by the French Academy to superintend a new 

 edition of the " Historical Dictionary of the 

 French Language." He possessed the charm 

 of a remarkable originality, an extraordinary 

 tact in mingling biographical anecdotes and 

 criticism, and a power of keen and rapid dis- 

 section of character and motive which, though 

 generally kindly, was always piquant and some- 

 times merciless. His style was as original as 

 his criticism, and mingled the idioms and ex- 

 pressions of the sixteenth century with those of 

 the nineteenth in a conglomerate as peculiar 

 and very much of the same character as the 

 " Carlylese " which has exerted such an influ- 

 ence on our English tongue, the new language, 

 the " Sainte-Beuve dialect " as Balzac terms it. 

 Besides the works aleady named, Sainte-Beuve 

 published "Poesies Completes " (Complete Po- 

 ems), 1 vol., 12mo, numerous editions ; " Criti- 

 cisms and Literary Portraits," 5 vols., 8vo, 

 1832-'39 ; " Literary Portraits," 2 vols., 12mo, 

 1844; "Contemporary Portraits," 2 vols., 

 12mo ; " Causeries du Lundi " (Monday Gos- 

 sipings), 15 vols. (13 12mo, and 2 ISmo), 

 1851-'62; "Gallery of Celebrated Women," 

 1858 ; " New Gallery of Celebrated Women," 

 1864; " Nouveaux Lundis" (New Mondays), 

 2 vols., 18mo, 1863; together with a great 



