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SOREL, ALBERT (1842-1906)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 433 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SOREL, See also:ALBERT (1842-1906) , See also:French historian, was See also:born at See also:Honfleur on the 13th of See also:August 1842. He was of a characteristically See also:Norman type, and remained all his See also:life a See also:lover of his native See also:province and its glories. His See also:father, a See also:rich manufacturer, would have liked him to succeed.to the business, but his See also:literary vocation prevailed. He went to live in See also:Paris, where he studied See also:law, and after a prolonged stay in See also:Germany entered the See also:Foreign See also:Office (1866). He had strongly-See also:developed literary and See also:artistic tastes, was an enthusiastic musician, even composing a little, and wrote both verses and novels, which appeared a little later (La Grande See also:Falaise, 1785-1793, in 1871, Le Docteur Egra in 1873) ; but he did not go much into society. He was anxious to know and understand See also:present as well as past events, but he was above all things a student. In 187o he was chosen as secretary by M. de Chaudordy, who had been sent to See also:Tours as a delegate in See also:charge of the See also:diplomatic See also:side of the problem of See also:national See also:defence; in these affairs he proved himself a most valuable collaborator; bJ- __ 1;)e5 See also:Tenor or `---~---1 See also:Alto. Basses to= he was unremitting in his labours, full of finesse, See also:good See also:temper and excellent See also:judgment, and at the same See also:time so discreet that we can only guess at the See also:part he played in these terrible crises. After the See also:war, when Boutmy founded the Ecole libre See also:des sciences politiques, Sorel was appointed to See also:teach diplomatic See also:history (1872), a See also:duty which he performed with striking success. Some of his courses have formed books: Le Tyaite de Paris du zo novembre 1815 (1873); Histoire diplomatique de la guerre franco-See also:allemande (1875); we may also add the Precis du See also:droit des gens which he published (1877) in collaboration with his colleague See also:Theodore Funck-See also:Brentano. In 1875 Sorel See also:left the Foreign Office and became See also:general secretary to the newly-created office of the Presidence du spnnt. Here again, in a congenial position where, without heavy responsibilities, he could observe and See also:review affairs, he performed valuable service, especially under the See also:presidency of the duc d'Audiffred See also:Pasquier, who was glad to avail himself of his See also:advice in the most serious crises of See also:internal politics.

His duties left him, however, sufficient leisure to enable him to accomplish the See also:

great See also:work of his life, L'See also:Europe et la revolution francaise. His See also:object was to do over again the work already done by See also:Sybel, but from a less restricted point of view and with a clearer and more See also:calm understanding of the See also:chess-See also:board of Europe. He spent almost See also:thirty years in the preparation and See also:composition of the eight volumes of this history (vol. i., 1885; vol. viii., 19(34). For he was not merely a conscientious See also:scholar; the See also:analysis of the documents, mostly unpublished, on French See also:diplomacy during the first years of the Revolution, which he published in the Revue historique (vol. v.—vii., x.—xiii.), shows with what scrupulous care he read the innumerable des-patches which passed under his See also:notice. He was also, and above all things, an artist. He See also:drew men from the point of view of a psychologist as much as of a historian, observing them in their surroundings and being interested in showing how greatly they are slaves to the fatality of history. It was this fatality which led the rashest of the Conventionals to resume the tradition of the Ancien Regime, and caused the revolutionary propaganda to end in a See also:system of alliances and annexations which carried on the work of See also:Louis XIV. This view is certainly suggestive, but incomplete; it is largely true when applied to the men of the Revolution, inexperienced or mediocre as they were, and in-competent to develop the enormous enterprises of See also:Napoleon I. In the earlier volumes we are readily dominated by the grandeur and relentless See also:logic of the See also:drama which the author unfolds before our eyes; in the later ones we begin to make some reservations; but on the whole the work is so See also:complete and so See also:power-fully constructed that it commands our admiration. Side by side with this great general work, Sorel undertook various detailed studies more or less directly bearing on his subject. In La Question d'Orient au X VIIIe siecle, See also:les origins de la triple See also:alliance (1878), he shows how the See also:partition of See also:Poland on the one See also:hand reversed the traditional policy of See also:France in eastern Europe, and on the other hand contributed towards the salvation of re-publican France in 1793. In the Grands ecrivains See also:series he was responsible for See also:Montesquieu (1887) and Mme de See also:Stael (1891); the portrait which he draws of Montesquieu is all the more vivid for the intellectual See also:affinities which existed between him and the author of the Letires persanes and the Esprit des lois.

Later, in See also:

Bonaparte et See also:Hoche en 1797, he produced a See also:critical comparison which is one of his most finished See also:works (1896); and in the Recueil des instructions donnees aux ambassadeurs he prepared vol. i. dealing with See also:Austria (1884). Most of the articles which he contributed to various reviews and to the Temps newspaper have been collected into volumes: Essais d'histoire et de critique (1883), Lectures historiques (1894), Nouveaux essais d'histoire et de critique (1898), Etudes de litterature et d'histoire (1901); in these are to be found a great See also:deal of See also:information and of ideas not only about See also:political men of the last two centuries, but also about certain literary men and artists of See also:Normandy. Honours came to him in abundance, as an eminent writer and not as a public See also:official. He was elected a member of the Academie des sciences morales et politiques (See also:December 18, 1887) on the See also:death of Fustel de Coulanges, and of the See also:Academic francaise (1894) on the death of See also:Taine. His speeches on his two illustrious predecessors show how keenly sensible he was of beauty, and how unbiased was his judgment, even in the See also:case of those whom he most esteemed and loved. He had just obtained the great Prix See also:Osiris of a See also:hundred thousand francs, conferred for the first time by the Institut de France, when he was stricken with his last illness and died at Paris on the 29th of See also:June 1906. (C.

End of Article: SOREL, ALBERT (1842-1906)

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