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VILLIERS DE
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See also:VILLIERS DE L'ISLE-See also:ADAM, PHILIPPE AUGUSTE MATHIAS, See also:COMTE DE 0838-1889), See also:French poet, was See also:born at St Brieuc in See also:Brittany and baptized on the 28th of See also:November 1838. He may be said to have inaugurated the Symbolist See also:movement in French literature, and Axel, the See also:play on which be was engaged during so much of his See also:life, though it was only published after his See also:death, is the typical Symbolist See also:drama. He began with a See also:volume of Premieres Poesies (1856-58). This wasfollowed by a See also:wild See also:romance of the supernatural, See also:Isis (1862), and by two plays in See also:prose, Ele"n (,866) and Morgane (1866). La Revolte, a play in which See also:Ibsen's See also:Doll's See also:House seems to be anticipated, was represented at the See also:Vaudeville in 1870; Conies cruels, his finest volume of See also:short stories, in 1883, and a new See also:series in 1889; Le Nouveau Monde, a drama in five acts, in 188o; L'E've future, an amazing piece of buffoonery satirizing the pretensions of See also:science, in 1886; Tribulat Bonhomet in 1887; Le See also:Secret de l'echafaud in 1888; Axel in 1890. He died in See also:Paris, under the care of the Freres See also:Saint-See also:Jean-de-Dieu, on the ,9th of See also:August 1889. Villiers has See also:left behind him a See also:legend probably not more fantastic than the truth. Sharing many of the opinions of See also:Don Quixote, he shared also Don 'Quixote's life. He was the descendant of a See also:Grand See also:Master of the Knights of See also:Malta, famous in See also:history, and his See also:pride as an aristocrat and as an idealist were equal. He hated mediocrity, science, progress, the See also:present See also:age, See also:money and " serious " See also:people. In one See also:division of his See also:work he attacked all the things which he hated with a See also:savage See also:irony; in another division of his work he discovered at least some glimpses of the ideal See also:world. He remains a remarkable poet and a remarkable satirist, imperfect as both. He improvised out of an abundant See also:genius, but the greater See also:part of his work was no more than improvisation. He was accustomed to talk his stories before he wrote them. Sometimes he talked them instead of See also:writing them. But he has left, at all events, the Conies cruels, in which may be found every classic quality of the French See also:conte, together with many of the qualities of See also:Edgar See also:Allan See also:Poe and See also:Ernst Hoffman; and the drama of Axel, in which the See also:stage takes a new splendour and a new subtlety of meaning. Villiers's See also:influence on the younger French writers was considerable. It was always an exaltation. No one in his See also:time followed a See also:literary ideal more romantically. (A. Sv.) See also R. du Pontavice de Heussey, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1893), a See also:biography, See also:English trans. (1904) by See also:Lady See also:Mary Loyd; S. See also:Mallarme, See also:Les Miens. Villiers de 1 Isle-Adam (1892) ; R. See also:Martineau, Un vivant et deux molls (1901), bibliography. A selection from his stories, Histoires souveraines, was made by his See also:friends (See also:Brussels, 1899). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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