HENRI

See also:

• FREDERIC, HAROLD (1856-1898)

FREDERIC

See also:

• HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL (1821-1881)

AMIEL (1821-1881)  , Swiss philosopher and critic, was born at Geneva on the 27th of September 1821 . He was descended from a Huguenot family driven to Switzerland by the revocation of the edict of Nantes . Losing his parents at an early age, he travelled widely, became intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe and made a special study of German philosophy in Berlin . In 1849 he was appointed professor of aesthetics at the academy of Geneva, and in 1854 became professor of moral philosophy . These appointments, conferred by the democratic party, deprived him of the support of the aristocratic party; which comprised nearly all the culture of the city . This isolation inspired the one book by which Amid lives, the Journal Intime, which, published after his death, obtained a European reputation . It was translated into English by Mrs Humphry Ward . Although second-rate as regards productive power, Amiel's mind was of no inferior quality, and his journal gained a sympathy which the author had failed to obtain in his life . In addition to the Journal, he produced several volumes of poetry and wrote studies on Erasmus, Madame de Stael and other writers . He died in Geneva on the 11th of March 1881 . His chief poetical works are Grains de mil, Il penseroso, Part du reeve, Les Etrangeres, Charles le Temeraire, Romancero historique, Jour a jour . See Life of Amiel by Mdlle Berthe Vadier (Paris, 1885) ; Paul Bourget, Nouveaux essais (Paris, 1885) ; E .

Scherer, introd. to the Journal and in Etudes sur la lilt. contemp . (vol. viii.) .