1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Prévost-Paradol, Lucien Anatole

PRÉVOST-PARADOL, LUCIEN ANATOLE (1829–1870), French man of letters, was born in Paris on the 8th of August 1829. He was educated at the College Bourbon and entered the École Normale. In 1855 he was appointed professor of French literature at Aix. He held the post, however, barely a year, resigning it to become a leader-writer on the Journal des débats. He also wrote in the Courrier du dimanache, and for a very short time in the Presse. His chief works are Essais de politique et de littérature (three series, 1859–1866), and Essais sur les moralistes français (1864). He was, however, rather a journalist than a writer of books, and was one of the chief opponents of the empire on the side of moderate liberalism. He underwent the usual difficulties of a journalist under that regime, and was once imprisoned. In 1865 he was elected an Academician. The accession of Émile Ollivier to power was fatal to Prévost-Paradol, who apparently believed in the possibility of a liberal empire, and consequently accepted the appointment of envoy to the United States. This was the signal for the most unmeasured attacks on him from the republican party. He had scarcely installed himself in his post before the outbreak of war between France and Prussia occurred. He shot himself at Washington on the 11th of July 1870, and died on the 20th.