Paul Bourget

Melissa Verhey (Princeton University)

Ed. by Hugo Azerad, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.06: French Writing and Culture: Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born 2 Sep 1852
Died 25 Dec 1935
Activity 1872-1935

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Literary Critic/ Historian
Novelist

Resources

Bourget's Works

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In the early days of the Second Empire, Paul Bourget was born in Amiens to parents from the Ardèche region. Little is known about Bourget’s mother who died when he was only six, but his father, Justin Bourget, was a well-respected math professor whose career led the family to move from Amiens to Clermont-Ferrand, where young Paul spent most of his childhood and adolescence. Later in his life, Paul Bourget would assert the importance of

territoire

in his vision of race, tradition and family. His essay on Baudelaire describes the family as a social cell, a building block of society. Bourget saw humanity as composed of many distinct races, from which he concluded that the family unit was responsible for maintaining a single geographic, political and class identity. In his novel

Le Disciple

…

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1292 words

Citation: Verhey, Melissa. "Paul Bourget". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 February 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5791, accessed 26 November 2024.]