Loire
The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...
), Janin's father was a lawyer, and he was educated first at St. Étienne, and then at the
lycée Louis-le-Grand
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...
in Paris. He involved himself in journalism from an early date, and worked on the '' Figaro'' and the '' Quotidienne'', among others, until in 1830 he became dramatic critic of the '' Journal des Débats''.
Long before, however, he had made a literary reputation for himself, publishing novels such as '' L'Âne mort et la Femme guillotinée'' ("The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman") (1829). ''
La Confession
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
'' (1830) followed, and then in '' Barnave'' (1831), he attacked the
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Le Chant des chemins de fer'' by Hector Berlioz, a composer and fellow critic at the ''Débats''.
After many years of ''
feuilleton
A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art critici ...
'' writing he collected some of his articles in the work called '' Histoire de la littérature dramatique en France (1853-1858).'' In 1865 he made his first attempt upon the Academy, but was not successful till five years later. Meanwhile, he had not been content with his feuilletons, written persistently about all manner of things. No one was more in request with the Paris publishers for
preface
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A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often close ...
s, letterpress to illustrated books and suchlike. He was accused of taking bribes for favourable reviews, reputedly earning 6,000 to 8,000 francs from fearful playwrights on a premier.
Janin traveled (picking up in one of his journeys a country house at
Lucca
Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957.
Lucca is known as one ...
in a lottery), and wrote accounts of his travels. He wrote numerous tales and novels, and composed many other works, including '' Fin d'un monde et du neveu de Rameau'' (1861), in which, under the guise of a sequel to Diderot's work, he showed his familiarity with the late 18th century. He married in 1841. In the early part of his career he had many quarrels, notably one with Felix Pyat (1810-1889), whom he prosecuted successfully for defamation of character.
For the most part his work was improvisation, noted for its light and vivid style. His '' Œuvres choisies'' (12 vols., 1875–1878) were edited by Albert Patin de La Fizelière. A study on Janin with a bibliography was published by Auguste Piédagnel in 1874. See also Sainte-Beuve, '' Causeries du lundi'', ii. and v., and Gustave Planche, '' Portraits littéraires''.
Works
*''The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman'' (English translation ed. by Terry Hale, Gargoyle, 1993)