View source for Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

{{Short description|French literary critic (1804–1869)}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name             = Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
| image            = Sainte-Beuve.jpg
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| caption          = Sainte-Beuve, {{circa|1860s}}
| pseudonym        = 
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| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1804|12|23|df=yes}}
| birth_place      = [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]], [[Picardy]], [[First French Empire|France]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1869|10|13|1804|12|23|df=yes}}
| death_place      = [[Paris]], [[Second French Empire|France]]
| resting_place    = 
| occupation       = [[Literary critic]]
| language         = French
| nationality      = French
| ethnicity        = 
| citizenship      = 
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = Collège Charlemagne
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| subject          = 
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = Port-Royal
| spouse           = 
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}}

'''Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve''' ({{IPA|fr|ʃaʁl oɡystɛ̃ sɛ̃t bœv|lang}}; 23 December 1804 &ndash; 13 October 1869) was a [[French literature|French]] [[literary critic]].<ref name="EB1911" />

==Early life==
He was born in [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]], educated there, and studied medicine at the [[Collège Charlemagne]] in Paris (1824–27).  In 1828, he served in the St Louis Hospital.  Beginning in 1824, he contributed literary articles, the ''Premier lundis'' of his collected ''Works'', to the newspaper ''[[Le Globe|Globe]]'', and in 1827 he came, by a review of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''Odes et Ballades'',<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin |volume=23 |pages=1022–1024 |first=Matthew |last=Arnold |author-link=Matthew Arnold}}</ref> into close association with Hugo and the [[Cénacle]], the literary circle that strove to define the ideas of the rising [[Romanticism]] and struggle against classical [[formalism (literature)|formalism]].  Sainte-Beuve became friendly with Hugo after publishing a favourable review of the author's work but later had an affair with Hugo's wife, [[Adèle Foucher]], which resulted in their estrangement.  Curiously, when Sainte-Beuve was made a member of the [[Académie française|French Academy]] in 1845, the ceremonial duty of giving the reception speech fell upon Hugo.

==Career==
Sainte-Beuve published collections of poems and the partly [[autobiographical novel]] ''Volupté'' in 1834.  His articles and essays were collected the volumes ''Port-Royal'' and ''Portraits littéraires''.

[[File:Plaque Sainte-Beuve, 11 rue du Montparnasse, Paris 6.jpg|thumb|Commemorative plaque, 11 Rue du Montparnasse, Paris]]
During the [[Revolutions of 1848|rebellions of 1848]] in Europe, he lectured at [[Liège]] on ''[[Chateaubriand]] and his literary circle''.  He returned to [[Paris, France|Paris]] in 1849 and began his series of topical columns, ''Causeries du lundi'' ('Monday Chats') in the newspaper, ''[[Le Constitutionnel]]''.  When [[Louis Napoleon]] became Emperor, he made Sainte-Beuve professor of [[Latin (language)|Latin]] poetry at the [[Collège de France]], but anti-Imperialist students hissed him, and he resigned.<ref name=EB1911/>

===''Port-Royal''===
After several books of poetry and a couple of failed novels, Sainte-Beuve began to do literary research, of which the most important publication resulting is ''Port-Royal''. He continued to contribute to ''[[:fr:La Revue contemporaine|La Revue contemporaine]]''.

''Port-Royal'' (1837–1859), probably Sainte-Beuve's masterpiece, is an exhaustive history of the [[Jansenism|Jansenist]] abbey of [[Port-Royal-des-Champs]], near Paris. It not only influenced the historiography of [[religious belief]], i.e., the method of such research, but also the [[philosophy of history]] and the history of [[esthetics]].

He was made Senator in 1865, in which capacity he distinguished himself by his pleas for [[freedom of speech]] and of the press. According to [[Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly]], "Sainte-Beuve was a clever man with the temper of a turkey!"  In his last years, he was an acute sufferer and lived much in retirement.

One of Sainte-Beuve's critical contentions was that, in order to understand an artist and his work, it was necessary to understand that artist's biography. [[Marcel Proust]] took issue with this notion and repudiated it in a set of essays, ''[[Contre Sainte-Beuve]]'' ("Against Sainte-Beuve").  Proust developed the ideas first voiced in those essays in ''[[In Search of Lost Time|À la recherche du temps perdu]]'' (In Search of Lost Time).

==Reception==
In 1880 [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], though an avowed opponent of Sainte-Beuve, prompted the wife of his friend [[Franz Overbeck]], Ida Overbeck, to translate the ''Causeries du lundi'' into German. Until then, Sainte-Beuve was never published in German despite his great importance in France, since it was considered representative of a French way of thinking detested in Germany. Ida Overbeck's translation appeared in 1880 under the title ''Die Menschen des XVIII. Jahrhunderts'' (''Men of the 18th Century''). Nietzsche wrote to Ida Overbeck on August 18, 1880: "An hour ago I received the ''Die Menschen des XVIII. Jahrhunderts'', [...] It is just a marvellous book. I think I've cried." Ida Overbeck's translation is an important document of the cultural transfer between Germany and France in a period of strong tension, but it was largely ignored. It was not until 2014 that a critical and annotated edition of this translation appeared in print.<ref>Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve: Menschen des XVIII. Jahrhunderts. Übersetzt von Ida Overbeck, initiiert von Friedrich Nietzsche. Mit frisch entdeckten Aufzeichnungen von Ida Overbeck neu ediert von [[Andreas Urs Sommer]]. 423 pp.  Berlin: Die Andere Bibliothek, 2014. {{ISBN|978-3-8477-0355-6}}</ref>

Sainte-Beuve died in Paris, aged 64.

==Publications==
{{French literature sidebar}}
===Non-fiction===
* ''Tableau Historique et Critique de la Poésie Française et du Théâtre Français au XVIe Siècle'' (2 vols., 1828).
* ''Port-Royal'' (5 vols., 1840–1859).
* ''Portraits Littéraires'' (3 vols., 1844; 1876–78).
* ''Portraits Contemporains'' (5 vols., 1846; 1869–71).
* ''Portraits de Femmes'' (1844; 1870).
* ''Causeries du Lundi'' (16 vols., 1851–1881).
* ''Nouveaux Lundis'' (13 vols., 1863–1870).
* ''Premiers Lundis'' (3 vols., 1874–75).
* ''Étude sur Virgile'' (1857). 
* ''Chateaubriand et son Groupe Littéraire'' (2 vols., 1860).
* ''Le Général Jomini'' (1869).
* ''Madame Desbordes-Valmore'' (1870).
* ''M. de Talleyrand'' (1870).
* ''P.-J. Proudhon'' (1872).
* ''Chroniques Parisiennes'' (1843–1845 & 1876).
* ''Les Cahiers de Sainte-Beuve'' (1876).
* ''Mes Poisons'' (1926).

===Novels===
* ''Volupté'' (1834).
* ''Madame de Pontivy'' (1839).
* ''Christel'' (1839).
* ''La Pendule'' (1880).

===Short stories===
* ''Le Clou d’or'' dedicated to [[Sophie d'Arbouville|Sophie de Bazancourt]], woman of letters and wife of général [[François Aimé Frédéric Loyré d'Arbouville]].
* De la littérature industrielle, [[Paris]], [[Allia]], 2013, 48p. {{ISBN|9782844857309}}
* ''Portrait de Leopardi'' (Paris, Allia, 2019, 2nd  edition, 80p) {{ISBN|9791030411591}}

===Poetry===
* ''Vie, Poésies et Pensées de Joseph Delorme'' (1829).
* ''Les Consolations'' (1830).
* ''Pensées d'août'' (1837).
* ''Livre d'Amour'' (1843).
* ''Poésies Complètes'' (1863).
* ''Poésies françaises d'une Italienne'' (1854) by [[Agathe-Sophie Sasserno]], preface by Sainte-Beuve

'''In English translation'''
* ''Portraits of Celebrated Women'' (1868, trans. [[Harriet Waters Preston|Harriet W. Preston]]).
* ''Memoirs of Madame Desbordes-Valmore'' (1873, trans. Harriet W. Preston).
* ''English Portraits'' (1875, a selection from ''Causeries du Lundi'').
* ''Monday-chats'' (1877, trans. William Matthews)
* ''Essays on Men and Women'' (1890, trans. William Matthews and Harriet W. Preston).
* ''Essays'' (1890, trans. Elizabeth Lee).
* ''Portraits of Men'' (1891, trans. Forsyth Edeveain).
* ''Portraits of Women'' (1891, trans. Helen Stott).
* ''Select Essays of Sainte-Beuve'' (1895, trans. [[Arthur John Butler]]).
* ''The Prince de Ligne'' (1899, trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley).
* ''The Correspondence of Madame, Princess Palatine'' (1899, trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley).
* ''The Essays of Sainte-Beuve'' (1901, ed. William Sharp).
* ''Memoirs and Letters of Cardinal de Bernis'' (1902, trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley).
* ''Causeries du lundi'' (1909–11, 8 vols., trans. E.J. Trechmann).
* ''Selected Essays'' (1963, trans. & ed. [[Francis Steegmuller]] and [[Norbert Guterman]]).
* ''Volupté: The Sensual Man'' (1995, trans. Marilyn Gaddis Rose).

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* [[Harold Nicolson|Nicolson, Harold George]] (1957). ''Sainte-Beuve''. London: Constable.
* [[Roger Lawrence Williams|Williams, Roger L.]] (1957). "Sainte-Beuve, Sultan of Literature". In: ''Gaslight and Shadow: The World of Napoleon III''. New York: Macmillan.
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|35em}}
* [[Matthew Arnold|Arnold, Matthew]] (1910). [https://archive.org/stream/essaysincriticis01arno#page/136/mode/2up "Sainte-Beuve."] In: ''Essays in Criticism.'' Boston: The Ball Publishing Co., pp.&nbsp;137–152.
* [[Irving Babbitt|Babbitt, Irving]] (1912). [https://archive.org/stream/mastersofmodernf00babb#page/n11/mode/2up ''The Masters of Modern French Criticism.''] Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, pp.&nbsp;79–188.
* [[Robert Baldick|Baldick, Robert]] (1971). ''Dinner at Magny's.'' London: Victor Gollancz.
* Barlow, Norman H. (1964). ''Sainte-Beuve to Baudelaire: A Poetic Legacy.'' Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
* [[Augustine Birrell|Birrell, Augustine]] (1892). [https://archive.org/stream/resjudicataepap00birr#page/298/mode/2up "Sainte-Beuve."] In: ''Res Judicatæ.'' New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp.&nbsp;298–308.
* [[George Henry Calvert|Calvert, George H.]] (1875). [https://archive.org/stream/essaysaesthetic00calvgoog#page/n160/mode/2up "Sainte-Beuve, the Critic."] In: ''Essays Æsthetical.'' Boston: Lee and Shepard, pp.&nbsp;158–197.
* Chadbourne, Richard M. (1977). ''Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve.'' Boston: Twayne Publishers.
* [[Edward Dowden|Dowden, Edward]] (1902). [https://archive.org/stream/newstudiesinlite00dowdiala#page/388/mode/2up "Literary Criticism in France."] In: ''New Studies in Literature.'' London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., pp.&nbsp;388–418.
* Compagnon, Antoine (1995). "Sainte-Beuve and the Canon," ''MLN,'' Vol. 110, No. 5, French Issue, pp.&nbsp;1188–1199.
* [[Albert Léon Guérard|Guérard, Albert Léon]] (1913). [https://archive.org/stream/frenchprophetsof00gu#page/200/mode/2up "Critics and Historians: Sainte-Beuve, Taine."] In: ''French Prophets of Yesterday.'' New York: D. Appleton and Company, pp.&nbsp;201–223.
* Harper, George McLean (1897). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miun.acd5969.0022.005;view=1up;seq=64 "Sainte-Beuve,"] ''Scribner's Magazine,'' Vol. XXII, No. 5, pp.&nbsp;594–600.
* Harper, George McLean (1901). [https://archive.org/stream/mastersoffrenchl00harp#page/218/mode/2up "Sainte-Beuve."] In: ''Masters of French Literature.'' New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp.&nbsp;219–275.
* Harper, George McLean (1909). [https://archive.org/stream/charlesaugustins00harpuoft#page/n7/mode/2up ''Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve.''] Philadelphia and London: J.B. Lippincott Company.
* [[Henry James|James, Henry]] (1880). [https://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=nora;cc=nora;rgn=full%20text;idno=nora0130-1;didno=nora0130-1;view=image;seq=0063;node=nora0130-1%3A5 "Sainte-Beuve,"] ''The North American Review,'' Vol. CXXX, No. 278, pp.&nbsp;51–69.
* Kirk, John Foster (1866). [https://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=atla;cc=atla;rgn=full%20text;idno=atla0017-4;didno=atla0017-4;view=image;seq=0438;node=atla0017-4%3A6 "Sainte-Beuve,"] ''The Atlantic Monthly,'' Vol. XVII, No. 102, pp.&nbsp;432–454.
* Knickerbocker, William S. (1932). "Sainte-Beuve," ''The Sewanee Review,'' Vol. 40, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;206–225.
* [[Andrew George Lehmann|Lehmann, A.G.]] (1962). ''Sainte-Beuve: A Portrait of the Critic, 1804-1842.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.
* MacClintock, Lander (1920). [https://archive.org/stream/saintebeuvescrit00macc#page/n1/mode/2up ''Sainte-Beuve's Critical Theory and Practice After 1849.''] Chicago, Ill.: The University of Chicago Press.
* Marks, Emerson R. (1964). "Sainte-Beuve's Classicism," ''The French Review,'' Vol. 37, No. 4, pp.&nbsp;411–418.
* [[Lewis Freeman Mott|Mott, Lewis Freeman]] (1925). ''Sainte-Beuve''. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
* Mulhauser, Ruth E. (1969). ''Sainte-Beuve and Greco-Roman Antiquity.'' Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University.
* Nelles, Paul (2000). "Sainte-Beuve between Renaissance and Enlightenment," ''Journal of the History of Ideas,'' Vol. 61, No. 3, pp.&nbsp;473–492.
* Paton, J.B. (1870). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015067865090;view=1up;seq=473 "Sainte-Beuve and Renan,"] ''The London Quarterly Review,'' Vol. XXXIII, pp.&nbsp;457–480.
* Pollak, Gustav (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/internationalper00polluoft#page/n9/mode/2up ''International Perspective in Criticism.''] New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. 
* [[Marcel Proust|Proust, Marcel]] (1988). ''Against Sainte-Beuve and Other Essays.'' London: Penguin.
* Smith, Horatio (1942). "Sainte-Beuve on Science and Human Nature: Jouffroy, Le Play, Proudhon," ''Modern Language Notes,'' Vol. 57, No. 7, pp.&nbsp;592–602.
* Sutcliffe, Emerson Grant (1921). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044017942434;view=1up;seq=53 "Sainte-Beuve on Fiction,"] ''The South Atlantic Quarterly,'' Vol. XX, pp.&nbsp;41–51.
* Switzer, Richard (1960). "Sainte-Beuve and the Ottocento," ''Italica,'' Vol. 37, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;109–117.
* Whitridge, Arnold (1923). "The Personality of Sainte-Beuve," ''The North American Review,'' Vol. 217, No. 810, pp.&nbsp;676–687.
* Whitridge, Arnold (1938). "Matthew Arnold and Sainte-Beuve," ''PMLA,'' Vol. 53, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;303–313.
* [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0004097580;view=1up;seq=60 "Hugo and Sainte-Beuve,"] ''The National Quarterly Review,'' Vol. XX, 1869, pp.&nbsp;32–52.
* [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076533213;view=1up;seq=92 "M. Sainte-Beuve,"] ''The Quarterly Review,'' Vol. CXIX, 1866, pp.&nbsp;80–108.
* [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106019607701;view=1up;seq=138 "Sainte-Beuve,"] ''The Edinburgh Review,'' Vol. CXXXII, 1870, pp.&nbsp;126–154.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=5145|name=Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve }}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve }}
* {{Librivox author |id=2196 }}
* [http://www.bartleby.com/32/202.html ''What Is a Classic?''] at Bartleby.com.

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{{Académie française Seat 28}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin}}
[[Category:1804 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Boulogne-sur-Mer]]
[[Category:French literary critics]]
[[Category:19th-century French novelists]]
[[Category:Writers from Hauts-de-France]]
[[Category:French male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]