Edgar Quinet

Edgar Quinet (; 17 February 180327 March 1875) was a French historian and intellectual.

Biography

Early years

Quinet was born at Bourg-en-Bresse, in the ''département'' of Ain. His father, Jérôme Quinet, had been a commissary in the army, but being a strong republican and disgusted with Napoleon's 18 Brumaire coup, he gave up his post and devoted himself to scientific and mathematical study. Edgar, who was an only child, was usually alone, but his mother (Eugénie Rozat Lagis, who was an educated person with strong, albeit original, Protestant religious views) exercised great influence over him.

He was sent to school, first in Bourg and then in Lyon. His father wished him on leaving school to go into the army, and then enter a business career. Quinet was determined to engage in literature, and after a time got his way when he moved to Paris in 1820.

His first publication, ''Les tablettes du juif errant'' ("The Tablets of the Wandering Jew"), which appeared in 1823, symbolized the progress of humanity. He became impressed with German intellectual writing and undertook the translation of Johann Gottfried Herder's ''Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit'' ("Outlines of Philosophy of the History of Man"). He learnt German for the purpose, published his work in 1827, and obtained through it considerable credit.

Early writings

At this time he was introduced to Victor Cousin, and made the acquaintance of Jules Michelet. He had visited Germany and the United Kingdom before the appearance of his book. Cousin obtained for him a position on a government mission in Greece, the " Scientific Expedition of Morea", in 1829 (at the end of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire), and on his return he published in 1830 a book on ''La Grèce moderne'' ("Modern Greece"). With Michelet he published a volume of works in 1843, denouncing Jesuits and blaming them for religious, political and social troubles. He also became acquainted with and a lover of the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1838. Quinet wrote several lectures praising Emerson's works which were published with the title of ''Le Christianisme et la Revolution Francaise'' in 1845.

Hopes of employment that he had after the July Revolution were frustrated by his reputation as a speculative republican. Nonetheless, he joined the staff of the '' Revue des deux mondes'', and for some years contributed numerous essays, the most remarkable of which was that on ''Les Épopées françaises du XIIème siècle'', an early, although not the earliest, appreciation of the long-neglected '' chansons de geste''. '' Ahasverus'', his first major original work, appeared in 1833it is a singular prose poem.

Shortly afterwards he married Minna More, a German girl with whom he had fallen in love some years before. Growing disillusioned with German thought because of Prussian aggressive tactics,Barzun, Jaques (October 1974), "Romantic Historiography as a Political Force in France", Journal of the History of Ideas 12, 3: 318–329 he visited Italy, and, besides writing many essays, produced two poems, '' Napoléon'' (1835) and '' Prométhée'' (1838), both written in verse and seen as inferior to ''Ahasverus'' published in 1833. In 1838 he published a strong reply to David Strauss' ''Leben Jesu'', and in that year he received the Legion of Honour. In 1839 he was appointed professor of foreign literature at Lyon, where he began the highly influential course of lectures which formed the basis for his ''Génie des religions''. Two years later he was transferred to the Collège de France, and the ''Génie des religions'', published (1842), he sympathized with all religions but did not favor one above all.

Professorship

Quinet's Parisian professorship, which began in 1842, was notorious as the subject of polemics. His chair was that of Southern Literature, but, neglecting his proper subject, he chose, in conjunction with Michelet, to engage in a violent polemic with the Jesuits and with Ultramontanism. Two books bearing exactly these titles appeared in 1843 and 1844, and contained, as was usual with Quinet, the substance of his lectures.

These lectures excited great debate and the author obstinately refused to return to literature strictly construed; consequently, in 1846, the government put an end to the lectures, a measure that was arguably approved by the majority of his colleagues. He was dismissed in 1846 by the Collège de France for his adamant attacks on the Roman Catholic Church, exaltation of the revolution, support for the oppressed nationalities of France and for supporting the theory that religion is a determining force in societies.

1848 Revolution

By this time Quinet was a pronounced republican, and something of a revolutionary. He joined the rioters during the 1848 Revolution which overthrew King Louis-Philippe of France, and was elected by the ''département'' of Ain to the Constituent and then to the Legislative Assembly, where he affiliated with the extreme radical party.

He had published in 1848 ''Les Révolutions d'Italie'' ("The Revolutions of Italy"), one of his main works. He wrote numerous pamphlets during the short-lived Second French Republic, attacked the Roman expedition with all his strength and was from the first an uncompromising opponent of Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon III).

Exile

Quinet fled Louis Napoléon's 1851 coup d'état to Brussels until 1858 and then fled to Veytaux, Switzerland, until 1870. His wife had died some time previously, and he now married Hermiona Asachi (or ''Asaky''), the daughter of Gheorghe Asachi, a Romanian poet. In Brussels, Quinet lived for some seven years, during which he published ''Les Esclaves'' ("The Slaves", 1853), a dramatic poem, '' Marnix de Sainte-Aldégonde'' (1854), a study of the Reformer in which he emphasizes Sainte-Aldégonde's literary merit, and some other books.

In Veytaux, his literary output was greater than ever. In 1860, he published a unique volume, partly reflecting the style of ''Ahasverus'', and entitled ''Merlin l'enchanteur'' (''Merlin the Enchanter''); in 1862, a ''Histoire de la campagne de 1815'' ("History of the Campaign of 1815"), in 1865 an elaborate book on the French Revolution, in which the author depicts atrocities carried out by revolutionary forces (causing his rejection by many other partisans of republican ideas). Many pamphlets date from this period, as does ''La Création'' (1870), a third book of the genre of ''Ahasverus'' and ''Merlin'', but even vaguer – dealing with physical science rather than history, legend, or philosophy for the most part.

Return and final years

Quinet had refused to return to France to join the liberal opposition against Napoleon III, but returned immediately after the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. He was then restored to his professorship, and during the siege of Paris wrote vehemently against the Germans. He was elected deputy to the National Assembly by the ''département'' of the Seine in 1871, and was one of the most obstinate opponents of the terms of peace between France and Germany. He continued to write till his death, which occurred at Versailles in 1875.

''Le Siège de Paris et la défense nationale'' ("The Siege of Paris and the National Defence") appeared in 1871, ''La République'' ("The Republic") in 1872, ''Le Livre de l'exilé'' ("The Book of Exile") in the year of its author's death and after it. This was followed by three volumes of letters and some other work. Quinet had already in 1858 published a semi-autobiographical book called ''Histoire de mes idées'' ("History of My Ideas").

Personality

According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition:

Early editions

His numerous works appeared in a uniform edition of twenty-eight volumes (1877–79). His second wife, in 1870, published certain ''Mémoires d'exil'', and ''Lettres d'exil'' followed in 1885. In that year Prof. George Saintsbury published a selection of the ''Lettres à ma mère'' (''Letters to My Mother'') with an introduction.

English translations published in the United States

* ''Ahashuerus'' translated by Brian Stableford, 2013, Black Coat Press,

References

* This, in turn, gives the following references:
** ''Libres Penseurs religieux'' (E. Paris, 1905)
** Richard Heath, ''Early Life and Writings of Edgar Quinet'' (London, 1881)
** Jérôme Alexander Sillem (1840–1912), "Edgar Quinet, geschiedschrijver en staatkundige" (Published in the Dutch magazine: "De Gids", 1869)
** Eugène Ledrain, ''A l'occasion du centenaire'' (1903)
** Hermione Quinet-Asachi, ''Cinquante ans d'amitié''

External links

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1834 edition of Quinet's ''Ahasvérus''
at Internet Archive

The Appealed Apocalypse: Edgar Quinet’s ''Ahasvérus'' and the Uncertain Future
by Brian Stableford

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinet, Edgar
1803 births
1875 deaths
Writers from Bourg-en-Bresse
Politicians from Bourg-en-Bresse
French republicans
Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly
Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic
Members of the National Assembly (1871)
Members of Parliament for Ain
Members of Parliament for Seine
19th-century French philosophers
French male journalists
French male poets
French fantasy writers
French male essayists
French political writers
Historians of the French Revolution
19th-century French essayists
19th-century French journalists
19th-century French male writers
19th-century French historians
19th-century French poets
19th-century French translators
19th-century French memoirists
Academic staff of the Collège de France
Honorary members of the Romanian Academy
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery