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A Brief Charles Augustin Sainte Beuve Bio

Written by: PoetrySoup Sainte Beuve (Charles Augustin), French critic and man of letters b. Boulogne, 23 Dec. 1804. Educated in Paris, he studied medicine, which he practised several years. A favorable review of V. Hugo’s Odes and Ballades gained him the intimacy of the Romantic school. As a critic he made his mark in ’28 with his Historical and Critical Picture of French Poetry in the Sixteenth Century. His other principal works are his History of Port Royal, ’40–62; Literary Portraits, ’32–39; and Causeries du Lundi, ’51–57. In ’45 he was elected to the Academy, and in ’65 was made a senator. As a critic he was penetrative, comprehensive, and impartial.