- Jules Janin
Jules Gabriel Janin (
February 16 ,1804 -June 19 ,1874 ), was a French writer andcritic .Biography
Born in
Saint-Étienne (Loire ), Janin's father was alawyer , and he was educated first at St. Étienne, and then at thelycée Louis-le-Grand inParis . He involved himself injournalism from an early date, and worked on the "Figaro " and the "Quotidienne ", among others, until in 1830 he became dramatic critic of the "Journal des Débats ". Long before this, however, he had made a literary reputation for himself, publishing novels such as "L'âne mort et la Femme guillotinée " ("The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman") (1829). "La Confession " (1830) followed, and then in "Barnave " (1831), he attacked theOrléans family.From the day, however, when Janin became the theatrical critic of the "Débats", though he continued to write books, he was most notable in France as a dramatic critic.
He wrote the text for the song "
Chant des chemins de fer " byHector Berlioz , a fellow critic at the "Débats".After many years of "
feuilleton " writing he collected some of his articles in the work called "Histoire de la littérature dramatique en France (1853-1858) ." In 1865 he made his first attempt upon the Academy, but was not successful till five years later. Meanwhile he had not been content with his feuilletons, written persistently about all manner of things. No one was more in request with the Paris publishers forpreface s, letterpress to illustrated books and suchlike.He travelled (picking up in one of his journeys a country house at
Lucca in a lottery), and wrote accounts of his travels; he wrote numerous tales and novels, and composed many other works, including "Fin d'un monde et du neveu de Rameau " (1861), in which, under the guise of a sequel to Diderot's work, he showed his familiarity with the late 18th century. He married in 1841. In the early part of his career he had many quarrels, notably one withFelix Pyat (1810-1889), whom he prosecuted successfully for defamation of character. For the most part his work was improvisation, noted for its light and vivid style. His "Œuvres choisies " (12 vols., 1875-1878) were edited byA de la Fitzelière .A study on Janin with a bibliography was published by
Auguste Piédagnel in 1874. See also Sainte-Beuve, "Causeries du lundi ", ii. and v., and Gustave Planche, "Portraits littéraires ".Works
*"The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman" (English translation ed. by
Terry Hale , Gargoyle, 1993)References
External links
*gutenberg author| id=Jules+Janin | name=Jules Janin
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