A Short History of French Literature
completed, he has produced some half-political, half-fanciful studies of
great literary excellence, such as _Caliban_, a satire on democracy, and
_La Fontaine de Jouvence_, a brilliant mediaeval fantasy-piece, covering
a violent attack on Germany. M. Renan is, in point of style, perhaps the
most considerable prose writer of France now living who is a prose
writer only. His prejudices are strong, and his strictly argumentative
and logical faculty rather weak. In temperament he is what may be called
a sentimental rationalist. But his literary knowledge is extraordinarily
wide and very accurate, while his literary sympathies, though somewhat
irregular in their operation, are warm. These peculiarities reflect
themselves in his style, which is a direct descendant of that of
Rousseau through M. Renan's own countryman, Chateaubriand. As a
describer of scenery he is unmatched among his contemporaries. He has an
extraordinary power of vivid and interesting narration inclining
somewhat to the over-picturesque. No one is able more cleverly to seize
on the most striking and telling features of a landscape, a book, a
character, and, by adroit dwelling on these, to present the whole as
vividly as possible to his readers. No one again is more thoroughly
master of a certain rather vague but telling eloquence which deals
chiefly with the moral feelings and the domestic affections, and
exercises an amiably softening influence on those who submit themselves
to it. M. Renan in style is rather an orator than a writer, though the
extreme care and finish which he bestows on his work give him a high
place in literature proper.
[Sidenote: Historians. Thierry.]
In history a group of distinguished names, besides a still larger number
of names only less individually distinguished, deserve notice. First
among these, in order of time, may be mentioned the two brothers Amedee
and Augustin Thierry, the former of whom was born in 1787, and died in
1873, while the latter, born in 1795, died in 1856. Both devoted
themselves to historical studies. But, while Amedee employed himself
almost wholly on the history of Gaul during Roman times and on Roman
history, Augustin, who was by far the more gifted of the two, took a
wider range. He was born and educated at Blois, and for some time
devoted himself to politics and sociology, being a disciple of Saint
Simon, and a fellow-worker of Comte. He soon, however, betook himself to
history, and in 1825 published his 'History of the Norman Conquest in
England.' Blindness followed, but he was able to continue his work. In
1835 he published _Dix Ans d'Etudes Historiques_, and in 1840, what is
perhaps his best work, _Recits des Temps Merovingiens_, a book which has
few rivals as exhibiting in a fascinating light, but without any
sacrifice of historical accuracy to mere picturesqueness, the
circumstances and events of an unfamiliar time. His last work of
importance was an essay on the Tiers Etat and its origin. Thierry is an
excellent example of an historian handling, with little guidance from
predecessors, a difficult and neglected but important age.
[Sidenote: Thiers.]
Far less important as a historian, but distinguished by his double
character of statesman and _litterateur_, in which he was more fortunate
than his two rivals in the same double career, Guizot and Lamartine, was
Louis Adolphe Thiers, who was born at Marseilles, of the lower middle
class, in 1797. He was brought up for the law, being educated at
Marseilles and at Aix. Then he went to Paris, and after a short time
obtained work on the _Constitutionnel_ as supporter of the liberal
opposition during the Restoration. His _Histoire de la Revolution
Francaise_ appeared between 1823-1827, and brought him much reputation,
which was very ill deserved as far as fulness and accuracy of
information are concerned. French readers, however, have ever been
indifferent to mere accuracy, and are given to admire even a superficial
appearance of order and clearness; at any rate, the book, added to his
considerable reputation as a political writer, made him famous. A paper,
which he founded in the beginning of 1830, the _National_, had much
share in bringing about the Revolution of that year. After it Thiers was
elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Aix, and in a short time became a
renowned debater. He held office again and again under Louis Philippe,
and was believed to be in favour of a warlike policy. When he retired
from office he began his principal literary work (a continuation of his
first), 'The History of the Consulate and the Empire.' He took no part
in the Revolution of 1848, and accepted the Republic, but was banished
at the _coup d'etat_, though not for long. In 1863 he re-entered the
Chamber, having constantly worked at his History, which tended not a
little to reconstruct the Napoleonic legend. Yet he was a steady though
a moderate opponent of the Second Empire. On its downfall, Thiers, as
the most distinguished statesman the country possessed, undertook the
negotiations with the enemy--a difficult task, which he performed with
extreme ability. He then became President of the Republic, which post he
held till 1873. He died on the 3rd of September, 1877. The chief fault
of Thiers as a historian is his misleading partiality, which is
especially displayed in his account of Napoleon's wars, and reaches its
climax in that of the battle of Waterloo. He has, however, great merits
in lucidity of arrangement, in an eloquent, if rather declamatory style,
and in a faculty of conveying a considerable amount of information
without breaking the march of his narrative.
[Sidenote: Guizot]
By a curious coincidence, the chief rival of Thiers in politics (at
least during the greater part of his life) was of his own class and
condition, and, like him, primarily a man of letters. Francois Pierre
Guillaume Guizot was, however, ten years the senior of Thiers, having
been born in 1787, at Nimes. Guizot was a Protestant, and his father
perished in the Terror. He was educated at Geneva, but went to Paris
early, and produced in 1809 (being then only twenty-two) a dictionary of
synonyms. After this he did miscellaneous literary work of various
kinds, and at the Restoration filled, as a moderate Royalist, various
posts under government, being appointed, among other things, to a
history professorship at the Sorbonne. He became more and more liberal,
and in 1824 his lectures were forbidden. His literary activity, was,
however, incessant, his greatest work being a collection of early French
historical writings in thirty-one volumes. He also paid much attention
to the history of England, and published, in 1826, a _Histoire de la
Revolution d'Angleterre_. This was followed by many other works, of
which his 'History of Civilisation in Europe,' and 'History of
Civilisation in France,' are the best known. He had been elected a
member of the Chamber before the Revolution of 1830, and after it he was
appointed minister of Public Instruction, having the powerful support of
the Broglie family. He was afterwards ambassador to London, and then
Prime Minister, being, it is said, very much to blame for the Revolution
of February. He escaped to London with some difficulty, and, though he
revisited France, had to return to England at the advent of Louis
Napoleon. He was not, however, a permanent exile, but was allowed to
enjoy his estate at Val Richer in Normandy. He died in 1874, having been
incessantly occupied on literary work of all kinds (chiefly connected
with French and English history) for the last half century of his life.
The chief of these in bulk was a voluminous history of France not
completed till after his death. Guizot's enormous fertility (for not a
twentieth of his works has been mentioned) perhaps injuriously affected
his style, which is not remarkable. Sound common sense and laborious
acquaintance with facts are his chief characteristics.
[Sidenote: Mignet.]
A companion of Thiers at college, and a _protege_ of his during his
years of power, was Francois Mignet. Born a year before his friend, he
outlived him. Mignet, too, wrote, and at the same time as Thiers, a
History of the French Revolution of curiously different character. He
became secretary of the Institute, and in 1837 a member of the Academy.
His chief later works were on the 'Spanish Succession,' on Mary Stuart,
and on Charles the Fifth after his abdication, with, last of all, the
rivalry of Charles V. and Francis I. Mignet is as trustworthy as Thiers
is the reverse. But his historical manner is exceedingly dry, as also is
his style, though it is correct and not inelegant.
[Sidenote: Michelet.]
A very different writer was Jules Michelet, the most original and
remarkable historian in point of style that France has ever produced.
Born at Paris, in 1798, he was also educated there, and became a
schoolmaster. Soon after he came of age he was transferred to the Ecole
Normale. The Revolution of 1830, owing to the influence of Cousin and
Guizot, opened great opportunities for historical students, and Michelet
was enabled to publish not a few historical treatises, some of a rather
specialist nature, others popular abstracts of French history. In 1838
he was appointed to a chair in the College de France, and, in
conjunction with his friend Quinet, he took part in the violent polemic
against the Jesuits which distinguished the time. He had already for
some years begun his strange and splendid _Histoire de France_,
1833-1867, but he accompanied its progress with a crowd of little books
of a controversial and miscellaneous character. Shortly before the
Revolution of 1848 he began, and soon after the _coup d'etat_ finished,
his _Histoire de la Revolution_. He declined to take the oaths to the
Empire, and so lost the place in the Record Office which he then held.
He died in 1874, and, notwithstanding his incessant literary activity
during his life, various unpublished works have appeared since, one of
which, describing the hunger-pinched population of the Riviera, is a
masterpiece of his volcanic style. This style is characteristic not only
of his great history, but also of his smaller books, of which _Des
Jesuites_, _Du Pretre_, _Du Peuple_, _L'Oiseau_, _L'Insecte_, _L'Amour_,
_La Sorciere_ (the last perhaps the most remarkable of all), are
especially noteworthy. It is entirely unlike the style of any previous
French writer, except that of Lamennais, who was, however, rather
Michelet's contemporary than his predecessor, and that of Victor Hugo,
in some of his more recent work. Broken and irregular in construction,
it is extraordinarily vivid in colour, and striking in the outline of
its presentment. The _History of France_ is a book to which little
justice can be done in the space here available. It is strongly
prejudiced by Michelet's republican and anti-Catholic views, and, like
all picturesque histories, it brings into undue relief incidents and
personages which have happened to strike the author's imagination. But
it is extraordinarily stimulating, full of energy and life, and almost
unequalled in the power with which the writer restores and revives the
past.
[Sidenote: Quinet.]
A bosom friend of Michelet, and his compeer in the attack on the
Jesuits, was Edgar Quinet, who was born near Bourg in 1803, and died in
1875. He was brought up for the most part at his country home in a
retired situation, where he early showed not only great devotion to
literature, but a curious tendency towards philosophic mysticism. He
travelled in Germany when young, and his translation of Herder's
_Philosophie der Geschichte_ introduced him to Cousin, and gave him some
profit and much reputation. He was sent to Greece on a government
mission, and after a time received a professorship, first at Lyons, and