VICTOR EUPHEMIEN PHILARETE

See also:

• VICTOR EUPHEMIEN PHILARETE CHASLES (1798-1873)

CHASLES (1798-1873)  , French critic and man of letters, was born at Mainvilliers (Eure et Loir) on the 8th of October 1798 . His father, Pierre Jacques Michel Chasles (1754-1826), was a member of the Convention, and was one of those who voted the death of Louis XVI . He brought up his son according to the principles of Rousseau's Emile, and the boy, after a regime of outdoor life, followed by some years' classical study, was apprenticed to a printer, so that he might make acquaintance with manual labour . His master was involved in one of the plots of 1815, and Philarete suffered two months' imprisonment . On his release he was sent to London, where he worked for the printer Valpy on editions of classical authors . He wrote articles for the English reviews, and on his return to France did much to popularize the study of English authors . He was also one of the earliest to draw attention in France to Scandinavian and Russian literature . He contributed to the Revue des deux mondes, until he had a violent quarrel, terminating in a lawsuit, with Francois Buloz, who won his case . He became librarian of the Bibliotheque Mazarine, and from 1841 was professor of comparative literature at the College de France . During his active life he produced some fifty volumes of literary history and criticism, and of social history, much of which is extremely valuable . He died at Venice on the 18th of July 1873 . His son, Emile Chasles (b .

1827), was a philologist of some reputation . Among his best

critical works is Dix-huitieme Siecle en Angleterre (1846), one of a series of 20 vols. of Etudes de [literature corn pane (1846–1875), which he called later Trente ans de critique . An account of his strenuous boyhood is given in his Maison de mon Pere . His Memoires (1876–1877) did not fulfil the expectations based on his brilliant talk .