Albert Thibaudet (; 1 April 1874 – 16 April 1936) was a French essayist and

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

. A former student of

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

, he was a professor of Jean Rousset. He taught at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

, and was the co-founder of the Geneva School of literary criticism. He was succeeded in his post by Marcel Raymond.

Career

In 1874, he was born in

Tournus Tournus () is a Communes of France, commune in the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Geography Tournus is located on the right bank of the Saône, 20& ...

and when eight, sent to the

Lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

Lons-le-Saunier Lons-le-Saunier () is a commune and capital of the Jura Department, eastern France. Geography The town is in the heart of the Revermont region, at the foot of the first plateau of the Jura massif. The Jura escarpment extends to the east a ...

. Afterward, his father sent him to 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 (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...

to complete

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

; a year later, he went to

Lycée Henri-IV The Lycée Henri-IV () is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges ('' lycées'') in France. The school educates more ...

, where he met

. He defied his father and continued studying humanities instead of moving to the Ecole Normale. His university career led him to being

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

at Lons-le-Saunier,

Carpentras Carpentras (, formerly ; Provençal dialect, Provençal Occitan language, Occitan: ''Carpentràs'' in classical norm or ''Carpentras'' in Mistralian norm; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the ...

Draguignan Draguignan (; ) is a commune in the Var department in the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (formerly Provence), southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of Artillery" an ...

Abbeville Abbeville (; ; ) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of Ponthieu. Geography Location A ...

, and

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the mos ...

. Thibaudet's reputation increased through 1920s and 1930s, in part for his regular articles in the ''

Nouvelle Revue Française ''La Nouvelle Revue Française'' (; "The New French Review") is a literary magazine based in France. In France, it is often referred to as the ''NRF''. History and profile The magazine was founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals including And ...

'' which he wrote from 1912 until his death, as well as for his numerous books. In 1928, the philosopher

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (; 10 April 1857 – 13 March 1939) was a French scholar trained in philosophy who furthered anthropology with his contributions to the budding fields of sociology and ethnology. His primary field interest was ways of thinking. ...

sponsored him to participate in the first of the ''

Cours universitaires de Davos The Davos University Conferences (; ) were a project between 1928 and 1931 to create an international university at Davos in Switzerland. Origins The Davos University Conferences owed their creation to two complementary initiatives, one local a ...

'', international meetings of intellectuals at Davos, Switzerland. In 2008, the Thucydides Centre (a research institute of the Paris Panthéon-Assas University) inaugurated the "Albert Thibaudet Prize", awarded to a French-language writer on international relations.

Works

*''La Campagne avec Thucydide'', 1922 (on

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

) * ''

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

'', 1922, republished, 1936 *''Le Bergsonisme'', 1923 (on Henri Bergson) *''La république des professeurs'', B. Grasset, Paris 1927 *''Physiologie de la critique'', 1930 *''Les idées politiques en France'', 1931 *''Histoire de la littérature française - de 1789 à nos jours'', 1936

References

1874 births 1936 deaths People from Tournus French literary critics French essayists Lycée Henri-IV alumni French male essayists {{France-nonfiction-writer-stub