The ABC Club was a name adopted by certain republican enthusiasts in Paris, professing to relieve the depressed. Their insurrection on the 5th of June 1832 was suppressed with bloodshed the next day. The events of the insurrection are described by Victor Hugo in 'Les Miserables'. Research ABC Club
Alexandre Dumas was a French novelist and dramatist. He was born in 1803 at born at Villers-Cotterets and died in 1870. He was the son of a republican general, and grandson of Marquis de la Pailleterie and a negress, Tiennette Dumas. In 1823 he went to Paris, and obtained an assistant-secretaryship from the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis Philippe. He soon began to write for the stage, and in 1829 scored his first success with his dramaHenry III. It was produced when the battle between the Romanticists and the Classicists was at its height, and hailed as a triumph by the former school. The same year appeared his Christine, and in quick succession Antony, Richard d'Arlington, Teresa, Le Tour de Nesle, CatharineHoward, Mile. de Belle-Isle, etc. Dumas had now become a noted Parisian character.
The critics fought over the merits of his pieces, and the scandalmongers over his prodigality and galanteries. Turning his attention to romance, he produced a series of historical romances, among which may be mentioned, Les Deux Dianes;
La ReineMargot; Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers), with its continuations Vingt Ans Apres, and Vicomte de Bragelonne. His Monte-Cristo (Count of Monte-Cristo) and several others are also well known to English readers through translations. Several historical works were also written by him: Louis XIV et son Siecle; Le Regent et Louis XV; Le Drame de '93; Florence et les Medicis, etc. The works which bear his name amount to some 1200 volumes, including about 60 dramas; but the only claim he could lay to a great number of the productions issued under his name, was that he either sketched the plot or revised them before going to press. He earned vast sums of money, but his recklessness and extravagance latterly reduced him to the adoption of a shifty, scheming mode of living. His Memoires, begun in 1852, present interesting sketches of literary life during the restoration, but display intense egotism. In 1860 he accompanied Garibaldi in the expedition which freed Naples from the Bourbons. Research Alexandre Dumas
Alexis Claude Clairaut was a French mathematician. He was born in 1713 at Paris and died in 1765. In his eleventh year he composed a treatise on the four curves of the third order, which, with his subsequent Recherches sur les Courbes a double Courbure, 1731, procured him a seat in the Academy at the age of eighteen. He accompanied Maupertuis to Lapland, to assist in measuring an arc of the meridian, and obtained the materials for his work Sur la Figure de la Terre. In 1752 he published his Theorie de la Lune, and in 1759 calculated the perihelion of Halley's comet. Research Alexis Clairaut
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was born in 1840 at Nimes and died in 1897. He settled in Paris in 1857, and wrote poems, essays, plays, etc, without much success, until he discovered his powers as a novelist, when he speedily became famous. His best works include Fromont jeune et Risler Aine (1874); Jack (1876); Le Nabab (1877); Les Rois en Exil (1879); Numa Roumestan (1881); L'Evangeliste (1882); Sappho (1884); Tartarin sur les Alpes (1886), a sequel to Les Aventures Prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon (1874); Trente Ans a Paris (autobiographical), 1888; Port Tarascon, dernieres Aventures d'lllustre Tartarin (1890); Rose et Ninette (1892). His chief works have been translated into English. Research Alphonse Daudet
Augustin Calmet was a French exegetical and historical writer. He was born in 1672 at Lorraine and died in 1757. He early entered the order of St Benedict, and became the head of several abbeys in succession. He was an industrious compiler of voluminous works, such as Commentaire sur tous les Livres de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament (Paris, 1707-16), Dictionnaire Historique et Critique de la Bible, Histoire Ecclesiastique et Civile de la Lorraine, etc. Research Augustin Calmet
Benedictines are members of the most famous and widely-spread of all the orders of monks, founded at Monte Casino, about half-way between Rome and Naples, in 529, by St Benedict.
No religious order has been so remarkable for extent, wealth, and men of note and learning as the Benedictines. Among the branches of the order the chief were the Gluniacs, founded in 910 at Clugny in Burgundy; the Cistercians, founded in 1098, and reformed by St Bernard in 1116; and the Carthusians from the Chartreuse, founded by Bruno about 1080. The order was probably introduced into England about 600 by St Augustine of Canterbury, and a great many abbeys, and all the cathedral priories of England, save Carlisle, belonged to it. Their habit consists of a loose black gown with large wide sleeves, and a cowl on the head ending in a- point. The Benedictines have produced many valuable literary works.
The fraternity of St Maur, founded in 1618, had in the beginning of the 18th century 180 abbeys and priories in France, and acquired fame by means of its learned members, such as Mabillon and Montfaucon. They published the celebrated chronological work, L'Art de Verifier les Dates, besides others. Research Benedictines
Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet. He was born in 1821 and died in 1867. His first work of importance was a series of translations from Poe, ranking among the most perfect translations in any literature. A volume of poems, Les Flours du Mal (1857), established his reputation as a leader of the Romanticists, though the police thought it necessary to deodorize them. Of a higher tone were his Petits Poemes enProse; followed in 1859 by a monograph on Theophile Gautier, in 1860 by Les Paradis Artificiels (opium and hashish studies), and in 1861 by Wagner and Taunhauser. Research Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pinot Duclos was a French novelist, writer of memoirs, and grammarian. He was born in 1704 at Dinant and died in 1772. He became secretary of the French Academy, and on the resignation of Voltaire he was appointed to the office of historiographer of France. His writings are lively and satirical. Among the best are Confessions du Comte de B (1741); Considerations sur les Moeurs de ce Siecle; Memoires secrets sur les Regnes de Louis XIV et XV; and Remarques sur la Grammaire generale de Port-Royal. Research Charles Duclos
Clement Francois Theodore Dubois was a French musical composer. He was born at Rosnay, Marne in 1837. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas and Benott. His cantata Atala gained for him the Grand Priz de Rome in 1861. He visited Rome, and on his return to Paris he became choirmaster of St. Clotilde, and later organist at the MadeleineChurch; was appointed professor of harmony at the conservatoire in 1871, and professor of composition in 1891; and in 1896 he succeeded Ambroise Thomas as director. His compositions, although not of the first rank, nevertheless stamp him as a musician of talent. In addition to his sacred and orchestral works, he composed the oratorios Les Sept Paroles du Christ in 1867, and Le Paradis Perdu, which gained the musical prize at Paris in 1878; the comic opera La Guzla de L'Emir in 1873, the ballet Farandole in 1883, the lyrical drama Aben-Hamed in 1884, and the dramatic idyll Xaviere in 1885. Research Clement Dubois
Marc Pierre De Voyer, the Comte D'Argenson, was a French statesman. He was born in 1696 and died in 1764. After holding a number of subordinate offices he became minister for foreign affairs, and succeeded in bringing about the Congress of Breda, which was the prelude to that of Aix-la-Chapelle. He was present at the Battle of Fontenoy, and was exiled to his estate for some years through the machinations of Madame De Pompadour. His Considerations sur le Gouvernement de la France, was a very advanced study on the possibility of combining with a monarchic form of government democratic principles and local self-government. Les Essais, ou Loisirs d'un Ministre d'Etat, published in 1785, is a collection of characters and anecdotes in the style of Montaigne. Research Comte D'Argenson
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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