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FEUILLET, OCTAVE (1821-1890)
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See also:FEUILLET, See also:OCTAVE (1821-1890) , See also:French novelist and dramatist, was See also:born at See also:Saint-L8, See also:Manche, on the 11th of See also:August 1821. He was the son of a See also:Norman See also:gentleman of learning and distinction, who would have played a See also:great See also:part in politics " sans ses diables de nerfs," as See also:Guizot said. This See also:nervous excitability was inherited, though not to the same excess, by Octave, whose See also:mother died in his See also:infancy and See also:left him to the care of the hyper-sensitive invalid. The boy was sent to the lycee See also: Strangely enough, in this exile—rendered still more irksome by his father's See also:mania for solitude and by his tyrannical temper—the See also:genius of Octave Feuillet See also:developed. His first definite success was gained in the See also:year 1852, when he published the novel Bellah and produced the See also:comedy La Crise. Both were reprinted from the Revue See also:des deux mondes, where many of his later novels also appeared. He wrote books which have See also:long held their See also:place,, La Petite Comtesse (1857), Dalila (1857), and in particular that universal favourite, Le See also:Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre (1858). He himself See also:fell into a nervous See also:state in his " See also:prison," but he was sustained by the devotion and intelligence of his wife and her mother. In 1857, having been persuaded to make a See also:play of the novel of Dalila, he brought out this piece at the See also:Vaudeville, and enjoyed a brilliant success; on this occasion he positively See also:broke through the consign and went up to Paris to see his play rehearsed. His father See also:bore the See also:shock of his temporary See also:absence, and the following year Octave ventured to make the same experiment on occasion of the performance of Un Jeune Homme pauvre. To his See also:infinite chagrin, during this brief absence his father died. Octave was now, however, See also:free, and the See also:family immediately moved to Paris, where they took part in the splendid social existence of the Second See also:Empire. The elegant and distinguished See also:young novelist became a favourite at See also:court; his pieces were performed at See also:Compiegne before they were given to the public, and on one occasion the empress See also:Eugenie deigned to play the part of Mme de Pons in See also:Les Portraits de la Marquise. Feuillet did not abandon the novel, and in 1862 he achieved a great success with Sibylle. His health, however, had by this See also:time begun to decline, affected by the sad See also:death of his eldest son. He determined to quit Paris, where the See also:life was far too exciting for his nerves, and to regain the quietude of See also:Normandy. The old chateau of the family had been sold, but he bought 2 See also:house called " Les Paillers " in the suburbs of Saint-Lo, and there he lived, buried in his See also:roses, for fifteen years. He was elected to the French See also:Academy in 1862, and in 1868 he was made librarian of See also:Fontainebleau See also:palace, where he had to reside for a See also:month or two in each year. In 1867 he produced his masterpiece of See also:Monsieur de Camors, and in 1872 he wrote Julia de Treueur, which is hardly less admirable. His last years, after the See also:sale of " Les Paillers," were passed in a ceaseless wandering, the result of the agitation of his nerves. He was broken by sorrow and by See also:ill-health, and when he passed away in Paris on the 29th of See also:December 189o, his death was a See also:release. His last See also:book was Ilonneur d'artiste (18go). Among the too-numerous writings. of Feuillet, the novels have lasted longer than the dramas; of the former three or four seem destined to retain their See also:charm as See also:classics. He holds a place midway between the romanticists and the realists, with a distinguished and lucid See also:portraiture of life which is entirely his own. He See also:drew the See also:women of the See also:world whom he saw around him with dignity, with See also:indulgence, with extraordinary penetration and See also:clairvoyance. There is little description in his novels, which sometimes seem to move on an almost See also:bare and colourless stage, but, on the other See also:hand, the See also:analysis of motives, of emotions, and of " the See also:fine shades " has rarely been carried further. Few have written French with greater purity than Feuillet, and his See also:style, reserved in See also:form and never excessive in See also:ornament, but full of wit and delicate animation, is in admirable uniformity with his subjects and his treatment. It is probably in Sibylle and in Julia de Trecceur that he can now be studied to most See also:advantage, though Monsieur de Camors gives a greater sense of See also:power, and though Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre still preserves its popularity. See also Sainte-Beuve, Nouveaux Lundis, vol. v.; F. Brunetiere, Nouveaux Essais sur la litterature contemporaine (1895). (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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