COURIER, PAUL LOUIS French Hellenist and political writer, was born in Paris on Jan. 4, 1 7 7 3. Brought up on his father's estate of Mere in Touraine, he would never take the name "de Mere," to which he was entitled, lest he should be thought a nobleman. At the age of 15 he was sent to Paris to complete his education ; his father's teaching had already inspired him with a passionate devotion to Greek literature, and although he showed considerable mathematical ability, he continued to devote all his leisure to the classics. He entered the school of artillery at Chalons, however, and in Sept. 1793 joined the army of the Rhine. He served in various campaigns of the Revolution ary wars, especially in those of Italy in 1 7 98-99 and 18o6–o7, and in the German campaign of 1809. He became chef d'escadron in 1803.
In 1803 appeared his Eloge d'Helene, a free imitation rather than a translation from Isocrates, which he had sketched in 1798. Courier resigned his commission in the autumn of 1808, but he attached himself to the staff of a general of artillery for the campaign of 1809. He was horror-struck by the carnage at Wagram (1809), refusing from that time to believe that there was any art in war. He hastily quitted Vienna, escaping the formal charge of desertion because his new appointment had not been confirmed. After leaving the army he went to Florence and discovered in the Laurentian library a complete manuscript of Longus's Daphnis and Chloe, an edition of which he published in 181o. The rest of his life was spent on his estate at Veretz (Indre-et-Loire), with frequent visits to Paris.
After the second restoration of the Bourbons the career of Courier as political pamphleteer began. He had before this time waged war against local wrongs in his own district. He now be came one of the most dreaded opponents of the Government of the Restoration. In 1819-2o he wrote a series of political letters of extraordinary power, published in Le Censeur Europeen, advo cating a liberal monarchy. The proposal, in 1821, to purchase the estate of Chambord for the duke of Bordeaux called forth from Courier the Simple Discours de Paul Louis, vigneron de la Chavon niere, one of his best pieces. For this he was fined and im prisoned. His compte rendu of his trial had a still larger circula tion than the Discours itself. In 1823 appeared the Livret de Paul Louis, the Gazette de village, followed in 1824 by his famous Pamphlet des pamphlets, called by his biographer, Armand Carrel, his swan-song. Courier published in 1807 his translation from Xenophon, Du commandement de la cavalerie et de l'equitation, and had a share in editing the Collections des romans grecs. In the autumn of 1825, on a Sunday afternoon (Aug. 18), Courier was found shot in a wood near his house. The murderers, who were servants of his own, remained undiscovered for five years.
The writings of Courier have solid historical value, and their curious style, derived partly from his Hellenism and partly from his loving study of the French writers of the i6th century, gives them an enduring literary interest.
A Collection complete des pamphlets politiques et opuscules litteraires de P. L. Courier appeared in 1826. See edition of his Oeuvres (1848), with an admirable biography by Armand Carrel, which is reproduced in a later edition, with a supplementary criticism by F. Sarcey (1876-77) ; also three notices by Sainte-Beuve in the Causeries du lundi and the Nouveaux Lundis; and A. Lelarge, Origine et fortune de sa famine (1925).