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Back to article: ALEXANDRE RODOLPHE VINET (1791-1847)

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VINET, ALEXANDRE RODOLPHE (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. He adjusted his