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408 FRANCE (LANGUAGE AND LITEKATURE) Feuilles d^automne, Chants du crepuscule, Voix interieures, Les rayons et les ombres, and Con- templations are poems of sentiment and fancy ; while his Chdtiments are bitter satires against Napoleon III. and his associates. His latest poem, VAnnee terrible, is a passionate lament for the misfortunes of France in 1871. In 1874 he published a novel called Quatre-vingt- treize, which delineates the great year of the first French revolution, 1793. Alfred de Mus- set, perhaps the most original of the four, is less known than either of them outside of France, but in his own country his reputation is very high. Among the other poets, Casi- mir Delavigne, whose Messeniennes rivalled for a while the success of Lamartine's Medita- tions, Auguste Barbier, the author of the lambes, Victor de La Prade, and the brilliant and original Theophile Gautier, must not be omitted. Nor must we fail to mention Jas- min, the barber poet, whose writings in the langue d?oc have made him popular in the south of France and famous abroad. Frede- ric Mistral, a Provencal writer, has acquired a unique reputation by his works in the lan- guage of his native province. History is un- doubtedly the most successful branch of mod- ern French literature. A larger number of valuable historical works have been published within the last 50 years than during any other equal period of time ; and the taste for such per- formances is still on the increase. M. Guizot, the great philosophical expounder of social in- stitutions and moral revolutions, and Augustin Thierry, the artistic historian of the middle ages, stand foremost among the promoters of this historical movement. The Essais 8ur Vhis- toire de France, by the former, the Eistoire generale de la civilisation en Europe and His- toire generale de la civilisation en France, which he wrote before engaging actively in political life, and his Histoire de la revolution d'Angle- terre, which he completed after leaving the ministry in 1848, are monuments of philosophi- cal history ; while the Lettres sur Vhistoire de France of Augustin Thierry, his Histoire de la conquete de V Angleterre par les Normands, his Eecits des temps merovingiens, and his Eistoire de la formation du tiers-etat en France, present a happy combination of dramatic narrative and perspicuous discrimination. Amedee Thierry, Augustin's brother, presents lively pictures of Gaul and other countries before and during the fall of the West Roman empire. Three writers have devoted their efforts to a full recital of the general history of France: Sismondi, whose voluminous work is an inexhaustible mine of knowledge and thorough research; Michelet, who combines the profound learning of a Bene- dictine monk with the humorous fancy of a poet; and last but not least, Henri Martin, who, under the impulse of patriotic enthusiasm, has successfully embodied in his book the results of modern science, while infusing into its pages a lively and never slackening interest. Barante, after giving (1824-' 6) in his Histoire des dues de Bourgogne an attractive specimen of purely narrative history, published histories of the French convention and of the directory, in which, though he is accurate and impartial, his monarchical predilections are strongly ap- parent. Capefigue, who died toward the end of 1872, wrote voluminously on the reaction- ary side of French history from Philip Augus- tus to Louis Philippe. The revolutionary period has engaged the attention of many historians, among whom the most prominent are Thiers, Mignet, Michelet, and Louis Blanc. The first, by his Eistoire de la revolution, at once gained a popularity which gave him an introduction into political life. His subsequent Eistoire du consulat et de Vempire has given him a still higher rank as a writer, though not as an impartial and trustworthy historian. The histories of Michelet and of Louis Blanc, who has also written a brilliant Eistoire de dix ans (1830-'40), besides several other works, are marked with strong democratic opinions; while that of Mignet, a vivid yet substantial sketch, bears the impress of philo- sophical impartiality. This writer has also pro- duced several miscellaneous historical works which are highly valued : Eistoire de Marie Stuart; Charles Quint, son abdication et sa mort; Philippe II. et Antonio Perez; and a large compilation, Eistoire des negociations relatives a la succession d'Espagne, containing beautiful narratives, preceded by an admirable introduction. Lamartine also figures among the historians; his Eistoire des Girondins, which appeared in 1847, created a deep sensa- tion by its magnificent style and enthusiastic spirit. He subsequently published the His- toire des constituants, Eistoire de la restaura- tion, Eistoire de Turquie, &c., more remarka- ble for showy eloquence than soundness and accuracy. Napoleon III. deserves to be men- tioned among the historians for his Eistoire de Jules Cesar, two volumes of which were published in 1865-' 6. Great historical publi- cations have appeared under the patronage of the government or of learned societies, the Collection des historiens de France, and the Eistoire litter aire de la France, among the number. Villemain ought to be reckoned among the historians, not only for his Eistoire de Cromwell, but for the admirable pictures of men and society in his excellent Tableaux de la litterature, and his Souvenirs contemporains. Vaulabelle has written an excellent Eistoire de la restauration, which deserves more fame than it has gained. Lanfrey's historical works are eminently judicious ; his Eistoire de Na- poleon has attracted much attention both at home and abroad by its new views about the great emperor. Taxile Delord's Histoire du Second Empire is equally judicious and more impartial. Garnier-Pages completed in De- cember, 1873, a history of the revolution of 1848. Archeology, to speak only of produc- tions of this century, has not been neglected, as is evidenced by the works of Letronne, Raoul-