SOREL, ALBERT (1842-1906), French historian, was born at Honfleur on Aug. 13, 1842. He was of a characteristically Norman type, and remained all his life a lover of his native province and its glories. He studied law in Paris, and after a pro longed stay in Germany entered the foreign office (1866). In 1870 he was chosen as secretary by M. de Chaudordy, who had been sent to Tours as a delegate in charge of the diplomatic side of the problem of national defence; in these affairs he proved himself a most valuable collaborator. After the war of 1870-71, when Boutmy founded the Ecole libre des sciences politiques, Sorel was appointed to teach diplomatic history (1872), a post in which he achieved great success. Some of his courses have formed books: Le Traite de Paris du zo novembre 1815 (1873); Histoire diplotnatique de la guerre franco-allemande (1875); also the Précis du droit des Bens which he published (1877) in collabora tion with his colleague Theodore Funck-Brentano. In 1875 Sorel left the foreign office and became general secretary to the newly created office of the Presidence du sena& His duties left him sufficient leisure for the great work of his life, L'Europe et la revolution francaise (8 vols., 1885-1904). His object was to do over again the work already done by Sybel, but from a less restricted point of view and with a clearer and more calm understanding of the chess-board of Europe. He spent almost
3o years in the preparation of this history; the analysis of the documents, mostly unpublished, on French diplomacy during the first years of the Revolution, which he published in the Revue historique (vol. v.—vii., xi.—xiii.), shows with what scrupulous care he read the innumerable despatches which passed under his notice.
He was also, and above all things, an artist. He drew men from the point of view of a psychologist as much as of a historian. Sorel was elected a member of the Academie des sciences morales et politiques (Dec. 18, 1889) and of the Academie francaise (1894). He died in Paris on June 29, 1906.
Sorel's other works include: La Question d'Orient an XVIlle siècle, les origines de la triple alliance (1878) ; Montesquieu (1887) ; and Mme. de Stael (1891) in the Grands ecrivains series; Bonaparte et Hoche en 1797 (1896) ; and Recueil des instructions donnees aux ambassadeurs vol. i. only (1884). Most of his essays and articles contributed to various reviews and to the Temps have been collected into volumes: Essais d'histoire et de critique (1883) ; Lectures his toriques (1894) ; Nouveaux essais d'histoire et de critique (1898) ; Etudes de litterature et d'histoire (19oI).