INTRODUCTION

Jules Lemaître, one of the foremost among contemporary French writers, was born in 1853 in Ta vers, a picturesque village in Touraine, situated on a high bank overlooking the Loire. His father and mother were the village school teachers; the mother 'Still lives there. His parents and the priests at the séminaire de Notre- Dame-des-Champs in Paris were Jules Lemaître's fîrst teachers. After completing his studies at the JEco/e Normale^ he began his career as professor ; he taught at Algiers, at Havre, and at Grenoble where he was professor at the University. He wrote poems at this time which were published in two small volumes: Les MédaillonSy in 1880; Petites Orientales, in 1883.

A long and brilliant article on Renan, which has remained famous, brought the name of Jules Lemaître before the public. He gave up teaching and quickly gained famé as a literary critic of the Revue Bleue, He also at one time was dramatic critic of the Journal des Débats. His critical studies are gathered in Les Contemporains (7 vol.), crowned by the Académie Française, and in Impressions de Théâtre (10 vol.). The most

"r récent critical work of Jules Lemaître is a volume on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, containing the brilliant and

f'^ much discussed lectures which were the literary event of last winter in the French capital. But Jules Lemaître