Barbey-D'Aurevilly

Robert Gillan (University of Manchester)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 2 Nov 1808
Died 23 Apr 1889
Activity 1828-1889

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Novelist

Resources

Barbey-D'Aurevilly's Works

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Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly was born in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte on 2 November 1808. His ancestry in Normandy dated back several centuries; originally of peasant stock, his family bought its way into the nobility in 1756. The circumstances of Barbey’s upbringing were curiously mixed, his father’s austere, Catholic royalist views conflicting with his mother’s and grandmother’s gambling and with his uncle’s fondness for alcohol. The combination of religious and political conservatism and debauchery would later become a central feature of Barbey’s literature. The geographical and historical background of his birth, in particular the legends of the counterrevolutionary Chouan insurgency, would also resurface in his writing. However, during his adolescence, his views…

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2440 words

Citation: Gillan, Robert. "Barbey-D'Aurevilly". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 November 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=250, accessed 21 November 2024.]