BRUNETIERE, FERDINAND (1849-1906), French crit ic and man of letters, was born at Toulon and educated at Mar seilles and the Lycee Louis-le-Grand. He became connected with the Revue des Deux Mondes, first as contributor, then as secretary and sub-editor, and finally, in 1893, as principal editor. In 1886 he was appointed professor of French language and literature at the Ecole Normale, a singular honour for one who had not passed through the academic mill. He became a member of the Academy in 1893. His published works include six series of Etudes critiques on French history and literature; Le Roman naturaliste (1883) ; Histoire et Litterature, three series (1884-86) ; Questions de critique (1888; second series, 1890). The first volume of L'Evolution de genres dans l'histoire de la littera ture, lectures in which a formal classification, founded on the Darwinian theory, is applied to the phenomena of literature, ap peared in 1890; and his later works include a series of studies (1894) on the evolution of French lyrical poetry during the 19th century, a history of French classic literature begun in 1904, a monograph on Balzac (1906) and various polemical pamphlets. Brunetiere was an orthodox Roman Catholic, and his political sympathies were in the main reactionary. He possessed two prime qualifications of a great critic, vast erudition and unflinching cour age. He was never afraid to diverge from the established critical view, his mind was closely logical and intensely accurate, and he rarely made a trip in the wide field of study over which it ranged.
His Manual of the History of French Literature was translated into English in 1898 by R. Derechef. Among critics of Brunetiere see J. Lemaitre, Les Contemporains (1887, etc.), and J. Sargeret, Les Grands Convertis (1906) .