Culture and Politics during the July Monarchy: The Case of the National

C.A. Sainte-Beuve , Portraits de femmes (Paris, 1858), 109.

Thiers was later to sum up this opinion in the phrase, "Les romantiques, c'est la Commune" (Pierre Moreau, Le classicisme des romantiques (Paris, 1932), 241) See also Charles Maurras, Romantisme et revolution (Paris, 1932);

A.E. Shumway , A Study of the Minerve française (Philadelphia , 1934);

M.H. Peoples , La société des bonnes lettres 1821-1830 (Northampton, Mass., 1923);

T.R. Palfrey , Le Panorama littéraire de l'Europe 1833-1834 (Evanston, Illinois, 1950).

H.M. King , Les doctrines littéraires de la Quotidienne, 1814-1830 ( Northampton, Mass., 1920);

K.L. Wood , Criticism of French Romantic Literature in the Gazette de France 1830-1848 (Philadelphia, 1934).

T.R. Davies , French Romanticism and the Press : The Globe ( Cambridge , 1906).

See Harry Levin , "Towards Stendhal", Pharos , iii (1945), 33.

Thiers had set the National's initial anti-romantic tone. See Sainte-Beuve, "Thiers", Portraits contemporains (Paris, 1870), iv, 133.

Théophile Gautier , Histoire du romantisme (Paris, 1927), 99-114.

Carrel and Hugo had met once previously at the book store of Alphonse Rabbe. The conversation turned to literature; Hugo defending the "new school" and Carrel attacking it. According to the poet Carrel referred to Chateaubriand as "a mannered and bombastic writer whose exaggerated reputation would not last twenty years, and everything that he had written was not worth a page of Bossuet" (Victor Hugo raconté par un témoin de sa vie ( Paris, 1863), ii, 71-72).

Carrel, National, 8 March, 1830. Following the first review Hugo wrote Carrel: "And after all, as opposed as we might seem to be today perhaps we are closer than Monsieur Carrel himself believes. I fought while he fought; while he ascended the political current I ascended the literary. We were to some extent proscribed at the same time. Only his affair was more serious than mine and that much more beautiful. I have only been outlawed by the academy" (Hugo to Carrel, 15 March, 1830; Correspondance , i(Paris, 1947), 469). Carrel was not to be so easily cajoled.

Given the National's nationalism it is not surprising that it opposed foreign literary influences. Some republicans opposed English plays with the cry, A bas Shakespeare! C'est un aide de camp de Wellington. André le Breton, Le Théatre romantique (Paris, 1923), 4.

Cf. J.M. Carré, Les écrivains français et le mirage allemand 1800-1914 (Paris, 1947); and Pierre Réboul, Le mythe anglais dans la littérature française sous la Restauration (Lille, 1962).

Carrel , National 29 March, .1830, Cf. Victor Hugo, Journal 1830-1848 (Paris, 1954)9.

Ampère , National, 23 October, 1830. J. J. Ampère (1800-64), son of the scientist, submitted literary articles to the National through 1830, taught at the Ecole normale, the Collége de France, and was admitted to the Académie française in 1847. See National, 18 December, 1832.

Rolle , National , 26 May, 1833.

National, 21 November, 1830.

Ampère , National, 23 October, 1830. On Mérimée see P. Trahard, Lajeunesse de Prosper Mérimée (Paris, 1925).

National23 October, 1830; cf. Louis Peisse, National, 16 September, 1833. According to Joseph d'Arcay, Mérimée contributed articles to the National in 1830 (Figaro, 16 April, 1879).

G. Michaut , Sainte-Beuve avant les Lundis (Paris, 1903), 30 1; cf. Sainte-Beuve, "Armand Carrel", Causeries de lundi (Paris, 1865), vi, 100. Broglie stated that it was the excesses of romanticism that repelled him: "Carrel in particular had far too delicate a taste. The least romantic of men, he never understood the role that one wished ugliness to play in the arts: he carried this prudish imagination over into politics" (Albert de Broglie, "Armand Carrel", Questions de religion et d'histoire (Paris, 1860), i, 349-50).

Carrel , National 2-3 January, 1834. Cf. Jules Janin's estimation of Carrel's critical acumen in Histoire de la littérature dramatique (Paris, 1854), iii, 36.

Vigny , Journal d'un poète (Paris, 1916), 54.

Carrel , National, 29 March, 1830 On the critic see also A. G. Lehman, Sainte-Beuve: A Portrait of the Critic 1804-1842 (Oxford, 1962) and Maxim Leroy, La politique de Sainte-Beuve (Paris 1941).

Sainte-Beuve to Pavie, 27 October, 1831 ; Correspondance générale, ed. by Jean Bonnerot, i (Paris, 1935), 266. Charles Magnin, a friend of Sainte-Beuve was already writing for the National. Magnin (1793-1862) ceased contributing to the paper in 1833 when he became Conservateur des imprimés of the Bibliothèque royale See his Causeries et méditations (2 vols, Paris, 1843);

M.H. Wallon , "Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Ch. Magnin", Compte rendu, Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres , ii (1874), 360-420; and the interesting correspondence of Magnin and Carrel conserved at the Bibliothèque municipale, Salins-les-bains.

Lehman , Sainte-Beuve , 155.

Henri Peyre , The Failure of Criticism (Ithaca, 1967), 122.

Indiana, see National, 5 October, 1832 ; Valentine, National, 12 December, 1832;

Lelia, National, 29 September, 1833.

National, 4 March, 1833; National, 1 January, 1833; see also Jean Touchard, La gloire de Béranger (2 vols, Paris, 1968). After Béranger the National's favourite poets were Barthélémy and Méry known for their bellicose Napoléon en Egypt (1828), Le fils de l'homme (1829), Varsovie (1831), Lyon (1831), A l'Italie (1831). Barthélémy's satiric paper Némesis was also praised by the National until June 1832 when the poet sold himself to the regime and produced Justification de l'état de silge. See the attacks of the National, 24 August, 1832, 21 September, 1832; cf. Jules Garsou, Barthélémy et Méry (Brussels, 1898).

John Sellards , Charles Didier 1806-1864 ( London, 1932), 34.

Sainte-Beuve to Latour, 1 June, 1833; Correspondance, i, 358.

On Sainte-Beuve acting as a go-between for Carrel and Hugo see Sainte-Beuve to Hugo, 10 May, 1832 ; 7 June, 1832 ; 11 June, 1832 (Correspondance, i, 298-9, 303, 303-4).

Sainte-Beuve to Hugo , 8 December, 1832; Correspondance, i, 325-6.

Sainte-Beuve to Carrel , July, 1832 ; Correspondance, i, 309-10.

Sainte-Beuve to Carrel , 4 January, 1834; Correspondance, i, 417.

Sainte-Beuve to Didier , 8 June, 1834; Correspondance, i, 439-40.

On Nisard see Sainte-Beuve, "Nisard", Portraits contemporains (Paris, 1846), ii, 238-82;

E. Seillière , "La critique anti-romantique après 1830 : Desiré Nisard", Académie des sciences morales et politiques , ccvi (1926), 194-240;

Charles Déjob , "La jeunesse de Desiré Nisard", Feuilles d'histoire , viii (1912), 464-80, and ix ( 1913), 69-80.

Desiré Nisard , Souvenirs et notes biographiques (Paris, 1888), 5. Another anti-romantic on the National was Louis Peisse (1803-80). He contributed to the paper from its founding, signed the journalists' protest of July, 1830, and became a shareholder in the National in 1834