|
See also: born at Bedarieux, in See also: Herault, a very picturesque See also: district of the See also: south of See also: France, which he made completely his own in literature
.
He was the son of a See also: local architect, who failed in business, and See also: Ferdinand was brought up by his
See also: uncle, the See also: Abbe Fulcran See also: Fabre, at Camplong among the mulberry woods
.
Of his childhood and early youth he has given a charming account in Ma Vocation (1889)
.
He was destined to the priesthood, and was sent for that purpose to the seminary of St Pons de Thomieres, where, in 1848, he had, as he believed, an ecstatic vision of Christ, who warned him " It is not the will of See also: God that thou shouldst be a See also: priest." He had now to look about for a profession, and, after attempting See also: medicine at See also: Montpellier, was articled as a lawyer's clerk in See also: Paris
.
In 1853 he published a See also: volume of verses, Feuilles de See also: lierre, broke down in See also: health, and crept back, humble and apparently without ambition, to his old home at Bedarieux
.
After some eight or nine years of country See also: life he reappeared in Paris, with the MS. of his earliest novel, See also: Les Courbezon (1862), in which he treated the subject which was to recur in almost all his books, the daily business of country priests in the See also: Cevennes
.
This See also: story enjoyed an immediate success with the See also: literary class of readers; See also: George See also: Sand praised it, Sainte-Beuve hailed in its author " the strongest of the disciples of Balzac," and it was crowned by the French See also: Academy
.
From this See also: time forth Fabre settled down to the production of novels, of which at the time of his See also: death he had published about twenty
.
Among these the most important were Le Cheerier (1868), unique among his See also: works as written in an experimental mixture of Cevenol See also: patois and French of the 16th century; L'Abbe Tigrane, candidat a la papaute (1873), by See also: common consent the best of See also: alI Fabre's novels, a very powerful picture of unscrupulous priestly ambition; Mon Oncle See also: Celestial
.
(1881), a study of the entirely single and See also: tender-hearted country abbe; and Lucifer (1884), a marvellous gallery of serious clerical portraits
.
In 1883 Fabre was appointed curator of the See also: Mazarin Library, with rooms in the Institute, where, on 11th See also: February 1898, he died after a brief attack of See also: pneumonia
.
Ferdinand Fabre occupies in French literature a position somewhat analogous to that of Mr See also: Thomas Harder amongst
See also: English writers of fiction
.
He deals almost exclusively with the population of theSee also: mountain villages of Herault, and particularly with its priests
.
He loved most of all to treat of the celibate virtues, the strictly ecclesiastical passions, the enduring tension of the See also: young soul See also: drawn between the spiritual
vocation and the See also: physical demands of nature
.
Although never a priest, he preserved a comprehension of and a sympathy with the clerical character, and he always indignantly denied that he was hostile to the See also: Church, although he stood just outside her
See also: borders
.
Fabre possessed a limited and a monotonous talent, but within his own See also: field he was as
See also: original as he was wholesome and charming
.
See also J
.
Lemaitre, Les Contemporains, vol
.
H.; G
.
Pellissier, Etudes de litterature contemporaine (1898) ; E
.
W
.
Gosse, French Profiles (1905)
.
(E
.
|
|
|
[back] FABRE |
[next] RAPHAEL FABRETTI (1618–1700) |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.