IV INTRODUCTION

accept a position in a governraent department He was soon sent to Auberive, the small tôwn referred to in our story. The country amidst which Auberive lies is beautiful ; it is traversed in ali directions by prattlingr brooks and verdant valleys. Inspired by such surround ings, Theuriet soon resumed his writing. The first work that brought him before the public eye was published in the Revue des Deux Mondes; it was entitled, "In Memoriam/' From that time on, and for the last forty years, Theuriet has kept on working. If ail his books are not equally good, they are ail noted for their lofty sentiments and their purity of style.

Although he would well nigh scorn the idea of being called a " réaliste^'' it is, nevertheless, safe to say that his Works "hold the mirror up to nature" more closely than many of those of the writers of the realistic school.

Critics hâve compared André Chénier to Prudhon, Casimir Delavigne to Paul Delaroche, Victor Hugo to Eugène Delacroix, Emile Zola to Courbet. Theuriet's descriptive talent might well be compared with Jules Breton^s graceful and tender genius, as both love nature, look upon it with kindred feelings, and idealize it.

When after years of faithful labor Theuriet relinquished his governmental clerkship, he retired to Talloires on the bank of the Annecy Lake in Savoy, where he now résides.

Among the works of the novelist, there is none whose pathos more directly appeals to one's feelings than " Bigarreau," in which the author gives a glimpse of the need of penitentiary reform, and shows that kindly, womanly influ-