Jules Lemaître

Jules Lemaître
Born	François Élie Jules Lemaître 27 April 1853 Vennecy, Loiret
Died	4 August 1914 (aged 61) Tavers, Loiret
Occupation	Literary critic, and author

François Élie Jules Lemaître (27 April 1853 – 4 August 1914) was a French critic and dramatist.

Biography

Lemaître was born in Vennecy, Loiret. He became a professor at the University of Grenoble in 1883, but was already well known for his literary criticism, and in 1884 he resigned his position to devote his time to literature. He succeeded Jean-Jacques Weiss as drama critic of the Journal des Débats, and subsequently filled the same office on the Revue des Deux Mondes. His literary studies were collected under the title of Les Contemporains (7 series, 1886-1899), and his dramatic feuilletons as Impressions de Théàtre (10 series, 1888-1898). ^[1]

His sketches of modern authors show great insight and unexpected judgment as well as gaiety and originality of expression. He was admitted to the French Academy on 16 January 1896. His political views were defined in La Campagne Nationaliste (1902), lectures delivered in the provinces by him and by Godefroy Cavaignac. He conducted a nationalist campaign in the Écho de Paris, and was for some time president of the Ligue de la Patrie Française, but resigned in 1904, and dedicated the rest of his life to writing.^[1]

He died in Tavers, aged 61.

Publications

Non-fiction

• La Comédie après Molière et le Théâtre de Dancourt (1882).
• Quomodo Cornelius Noster Aristotelis Poeticam sit Interpretatus (1882).
• Les Contemporains. Études et Portraits Littéraires (7 vols., 1886–1899; 8th vol. posthumous).
• Corneille et la Poétique d'Aristote (1888).
• Impressions de Théâtre (10 vols., 1888–1898).
• L'Imagier, Études et Portraits Contemporains (1892).
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1907).
• Jean Racine (1908).
• Fénelon (1910).
• Châteaubriand (1912).
• Les Péchés de Sainte-Beuve (1913).

Theater

• Révoltée (1889).
• Le Député Leveau (1890).
• Mariage Blanc (1891).
• Flipote (1893).
• Le Pardon (1895).
• L'Âge Difficile (1895).
• La Bonne Hélène (1896).
• L'Aînée (1898).
• Bertrade (1905).
• La Massière (1905).
• Le Mariage de Télémaque (1910).
• Kismet (1912).
• Un Salon (1924, posthumous).

Poetry

• Les Médaillons (1880).
• Petites Orientales (1883).

Miscellaneous

• Sérénus, Histoire d'un Martyr. Contes d'Autrefois et d'Aujourd'hui (1886).
• Dix Contes (1890).
• Les Rois (1893).
• Myrrha, Vierge et Martyre (1894).
• La Franc-maçonnerie (1899).
• Contes Blancs: la Cloche; la Chapelle Blanche; Mariage Blanc (1900).
• En Marge des Vieux Livres (1905–1907).
• Discours Royalistes, 1908–1911 (1911).
• La Vieillesse d'Hélène. Nouveaux Contes en Marge (1914).

Works in English translation

• The Eldest: Comedy in Four Acts (189–?).
• "A Modern 'Morality'," The Living Age (1897).
• "The Snobs." In: The Universal Anthology (1899).
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1907).
• Their Majesties the Kings (1909).
• Forgiveness: A Play in Three Acts (1913).
• "The Pardon." In: Three Modern Plays from the French (1914).
• A Modern Book of Criticism (1919).
  • "The Criticism of Contemporaries," pp. 15–19.
  • "Personality in Criticism," pp. 20–23.
  • "Tradition and Love," pp. 23–25.
• Serenus and Other Stories of the Past and Present (1920).
• Literary Impressions (1921).
• "Princess Mimi," The Living Age (1921).
• Theatrical Impressions (1924).
• On the Margins of Old Books (1929).

Quotations

• "There are a thousand ways of seeing the same object."^[2]
• "The body has a character as complex and as difficult to comprehend as the moral character whereof it is the translation and the symbol."^[3]
• "Happiness is so fragile that one risks the loss of it by talking of it.^[4]

References

1. Chisholm 1911.
2. Pène du Bois, Henri (1894). French Folly in Maxims. New York: Brentano's, p. 10.
3. Pène du Bois (1894), p. 10.
4. Pène du Bois, Henri (1897). Witty, Wise and Wicked Maxims. New York: Brentano's, p. 16.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lemaître, François Élie Jules". Encyclopædia Britannica 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

• Blaze de Bury, Yetta (1898). "Jules Lemaître." In: French Literature of To-day. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, pp. 183–210.
• Clark, Barrett H. (1916). "Jules Lemaître." In: Contemporary French Dramatists. Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd Co., pp. 121–136.
• Donoso, Armando (1914). Lemaitre, Crítico Literario. Santiago de Chile: Empresa "Zig-zag".
• Henry, Stuart Oliver (1897). "Jules Lemaître". In: Hours with Famous Parisians. Chicago: Way and Williams, pp. 97–109.
• Lewisohn, Ludwig (1915). "The Humanists." In: The Modern Drama. New York, B.W. Huebsch, pp. 90–99.
• Matthews, Brander (1895). "Jules Lemaître." In: Books and Play-books. London: Osgood, McIlvaine & co., pp. 117–137.
• Morice, Henri (1924). Jules Lemaître. Paris: Perrin et Cie.
• Schinz, A. (1907). "Jules Lemaitre Versus Democracy," The Bookman, pp. 85–88.

External links

• Works by Jules Lemaître at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Jules Lemaître at Internet Archive
• Works by Jules Lemaître at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Jules Lemaître, at Hathi Trust