Sainte Beuve

(Charles August in), French critic and man of letters b. Boulogne, 23 Dec. 1804. Educated in Paris, he studied medicine, which he practised several years. A favorable review of V. Hugo’s Odes and Ballades gained him the intimacy of the Romantic school. As a critic he made his mark in ’28 with his Historical and Critical Picture of French Poetry in the Sixteenth Century . His other principal works are his History of Port Royal , ’40–62; Literary Portraits , ’32–39; and Causeries du Lundi , ’51–57. In ’45 he was elected to the Academy, and in ’65 was made a senator. As a critic he was penetrative, comprehensive, and impartial.