Edgar 1803-1875 Quinet

QUINET, EDGAR (1803-1875), French historian and man of letters, was born at Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain), on Feb. 17, 1803. His first publication, the Tablettes du Juif Errant, appeared in 1823. He obtained considerable credit from his translation (1827) of Herder's Philosophie der Geschichte. At this time he met Michelet, and also Cousin, who procured him a post on a Gov ernment mission to the Morea in 1829. On his return he pub lished La Grece Moderne in 1830. His reputation for speculative Republicanism ruined his hopes of employment after the Febru ary revolution, but he joined the staff of the Revue des deux Moudes. The most remarkable of the numerous essays which he contributed to it was on Les Epopees francaises du XI'erne siècle. In 1839 he was appointed professor of foreign literature at Lyons, and in 1841 was transferred to the chair of southern literature at the College de France. The Genie des religions, embodying his brilliant lectures at Lyons, appeared in 1842. In 1846 the Government put an end to his lectures, because he intro duced into them polemic against Ultramontanism.

Quinet took part in the revolution of

1848, and was returned for Ain to the Constituent and then to the Legislative Assembly, where he figured among the extreme radical party. He wrote many pamphlets during the Second Republic, attacked the Roman ex pedition and was an uncompromising opponent of Prince Louis Napoleon. He was banished from France after the coup d'etat

and settled at Brussels, where he lived for seven years, and pub lished Les Esclaves (1853) and Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde (1854). Quinet was restored to his chair after the fall of the Empire, and during the siege of Paris wrote vehemently against the Germans. As deputy for the department of the Seine (1871) he opposed the terms of peace between France and Germany. He died on March 27, 1875.

addition to the works mentioned above, Quinet wrote Les Revolutions d'Italie (1848) ; Histoire de mes idies (1858) ; Le Siege de Paris et la defense rationale (1871) ; La Republique (1872) ; Le Livre de l'exile (1875 and later). Three volumes of letters and some other works were published posthumously. A complete edi tion of his works was published in 28 volumes in 1877-79. His second wife, in 187o, published certain Memoires d'exil, and Lettres d'exil followed in 1885. In that year Prof. George Saintsbury published a selection of the Lettres a sa mere with an introduction. See also E. Paris, Libres penseurs religieux (19o5) ; R. Heath, Early Life and Writ ings of Edgar Quinet 0880.