Henry Houssaye (also Henri) (24 February 184823 September 1911), was a French

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and academician.

Biography

Houssaye was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, the son of the novelist Arsène Houssaye. He distinguished himself in the Franco-Prussian War, and was subsequently an editor of the ''Journal des Débats'' and the ''Revue des Deux Mondes''. His early writings were devoted to classical antiquity, his knowledge drawn partly from visits to the actual Greek sites in 1868. He published successively ''Histoire d’ Apelles'' (1867), a study on

Greek art Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods (with further developments during the Hellenistic Period). It absorbed influences of E ...

; ''L'Armée dans la Grèce antique'' (1867); ''Histoire d’Alcibiade et de la République athénienne, depuis la mort de Périclès jusqu’à l’avènement des trente tyrans'' (1873; received from the French Academy the prize established by Thiers); Papers on ''Le Nombre des citoyens d'Athènes au Vème siècle avant l’ère chrétienne'' (1882); ''La Loi agraire à Sparte'' (1884); ''Le premier siège de Paris, an 52 avant l’ère chrétienne'' (1876); and two volumes of

miscellanies A miscellany is a collection of various pieces of writing by different authors. Meaning a mixture, medley, or assortment, a wikt:miscellany, miscellany can include pieces on many subjects and in a variety of different Literary genre, forms. In c ...

, ''Athènes, Rome, Paris, l'histoire et les mœurs'' (1879), and ''Aspasie, Cléopâtre, Théodora'' (6th ed. 1889). The military history of

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

then attracted him. His first volume on this subject, ''1814, Histoire de la Campagne de France et la Chute de l'Empire'' (1888), went through no fewer than 46 editions. It was followed by ''1815'', the first part of which comprises the first Restoration, the return from

Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano Nationa ...

and the Hundred Days (1893); the second part, Waterloo (1899); and the third part, the second abdication and the

White Terror White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...

(1905). He was elected a member of the Académie française in 1895. He died in Paris.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houssaye, Henry 1848 births 1911 deaths Writers from Paris 19th-century French writers 19th-century French historians French art critics French literary critics Members of the Académie Française Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Members of the Ligue de la patrie française Officiers of the Légion d'honneur