ALEXANDRE RODOLPHE

See also:

• ALEXANDRE RODOLPHE VINET (1791-1847)

VINET (1791-1847)  , French critic and theologian, of Swiss birth, was born near Lausanne on the 17th of June 1797 . He was educated for the Protestant ministry, being ordained in 1819, when already teacher of the French language and literature in the gymnasium at Basel; and during the whole of his life he was as much a critic as a theologian . His literary criticism brought him into contact with Sainte-Beuve, for whom he procured an invitation to lecture at Lausanne, which led to his famous work on Port-Royal . Vinet's Chrestomathie fran4aise (1829), his Etudes sur la litterature fran4aise au XIX"'e siecle (1849-51), and his Histoire de la litterature fran4aise au X VIIP"e siecle, together with his Etudes sur Pascal, Etudes sur les moralistes aux X et X VII"'° siecles, Histoire de la predication parmi les Reformes de France and other kindred works, gave evidence of a wide knowledge of literature, a sober and acute literary judgment and a distinguished faculty of appreciation .