GAUTIER, Theophile, French poet and prose writer: b. Tarbes, France; 31 Aug. 1811; d. Paris, 23 Oct. 1872. He was educated at the grammar school of his native town, and after ward at the College Charlemagne in Paris. He applied himself at first, but without much suc cess, to painting; and then turned to litera ture. In verse he published (1830); 'Comedy of Death' (1832); 'Enamels and Cameos' (1856), his best poetry, etc. His novels and short stories include 'Young France' (1833) ; 'Mademoiselle de Maupin> (1835); 'Fortunio' (1838); 'A Tear of the Devil' (1839); 'Militona> (1847) ; 'The Tiger's Skin' (1852) (1857); 'Captain Fracasse' (1863); Jenny' (1865) ; (Spirite) (1866), etc. He was drawn early to feuilleton writing, and for more than 30 years contributed to the Paris newspapers criticisms on the theatre and the salon. He also wrote (Journey in Spain) (1843); (Zigzags) (1845); (Constantinople) (1854); 'journey in Russia' (1866), etc., which rank among the most delightful books of modern travel. Still other works were an enlarged edi tion of (Enamels and Cameos) (1872) ; 'The Grotesques) (1844); 'History of Dramatic Art in France' (1859); (Balzac) (1858) ; 'Private Menagerie' (1869), biographical; 'History of Romanticism' (1872); 'Literary Portraits and Souvenirs) (1875) ; 'The East' (1877), the last two being posthumous. Gautier's whole phi
losophy is a philosophy of paradox, his ideal of life hardly more than a picturesque vicious ness. His besetting sin was a desire to say something clever and wicked to shock the Philistines. (See MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN).
He was one of the most interesting figures in the literary world of Paris in his day; was cosmopolitan in his tastes and employed a style remarkable for its faultlessness. His frank ex pression of hedonism and his contempt for the common canons of morality as expressed in many of his works kept the Academy forever closed to him. Consult lives by Feydeau (1874); Bergerat (1878); Richet (1893) • Brunetiere, 'Evolution de la poesie lyriquel (1894) ' • Du Camp (1890); also Deschamps, 'La vie et les livres) (Paris 1900); Faguet, 'Le .XIXe Siecle) (ib. 1894) ; Henriot, E., (The ophile Gautier, poke) in Annales Romantiques, 1912); Huneker, J.'The Pathos of Dis tance) (New York 1913).