1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Droz, Antoine Gustave

8173251911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 8 — Droz, Antoine Gustave

DROZ, ANTOINE GUSTAVE (1832–1895), French man of letters, son of the sculptor J. A. Droz (1807–1872), was born in Paris on the 9th of June 1832. He was educated as an artist, and began to exhibit in the Salon of 1857. A series of sketches dealing gaily and lightly with the intimacies of family life, published in the Vie parisienne and issued in book form as Monsieur, Madame et Bébé (1866), won for the author an immediate and great success. Entre nous (1867) was built on a similar plan, and was followed by some psychological novels: Le Cahier bleu de Mlle Cibot (1868); Autour d’une source (1869); Un Paquet de lettres (1870); Babolein (1872); Les Étangs (1875); L’Enfant (1885). His Tristesses et sourires (1884) is a delicate analysis of the niceties of family intercourse and its difficulties. Droz’s first book was translated into English under the title of Papa, Mamma and Baby (1887). Un Été à la campagne, a book which caused considerable scandal, was erroneously attributed to him. He died on the 22nd of October 1895.