BARBEY D'AUREVILLY

barbey d'aurevilly, jules amedee (1808-1889), french man of letters, was born at saint-sauveur-le-vicomte (manche) on the 2nd of november 1808. his most famous novels are _une vieille maitresse_ (1851), attacked at the time of its publication on the charge of immorality; _l'ensorcelee_ (1854), an episode of the royalist rising among the norman peasants against the first republic; the _chevalier destouches_ (1864); and a collection of extraordinary stories entitled _les diaboliques_ (1874). barbey d'aurevilly is an extreme example of the eccentricities of which the romanticists were capable, and to read him is to understand the discredit that fell upon the manner. he held extreme catholic views and wrote on the most _risque_ subjects, he gave himself aristocratic airs and hinted at a mysterious past, though his parentage was entirely _bourgeois_ and his youth very hum-drum and innocent. in the 'fifties d'aurevilly became literary critic of the _pays_, and a number of his essays, contributed to this and other journals, were collected as _les oeuvres et les hommes du xix^e siecle_ (1861-1865). other literary studies are _les romanciers_ (1866) and _goethe et diderot_ (1880). he died in paris on the 23rd of april 1889. paul bourget describes him as a dreamer with an exquisite sense of vision, who sought and found in his work a refuge from the [v.03 p.0387] uncongenial world of every day. jules lemaitre, a less sympathetic critic, finds in the extraordinary crimes of his heroes and heroines, his reactionary views, his dandyism and snobbery, an exaggerated byronism. see also alcide dusolier, _jules barbey d'aurevilly_ (1862), a collection of eulogies and interviews; paul bourget, preface to d'aurevilly's _memoranda_ (1883); jules lemaitre, _les contemporains_; eugene grele, _barbey d'aurevilly, sa vie et son oeuvre_ (1902); rene doumic, in the _revue des deux mondes_ (sept. 1902).