EMILE SOUVESTRE was born at Morlaix in Brittany, April 15, 1806. His
father was a civil engineer, and he intended following the same
profession. After his father's death he changed his mind and began to
study law, but being ambitious to shine as a writer he soon abandoned
the law also.
His first literary work was a drama entitled "The Siege of Missolonghi,"
but this, like many other works of its class, was never produced on the
stage. The misfortunes of his family soon compelled him to devote
himself to making money, and in 1828 he became a book-keeper in Nantes.
He did not, however, entirely renounce literature, but published
numerous articles in various periodicals, the most noted of which was a
series entitled "Les Derniers Bretons," which appeared in "La Revue des
Deux Mondes." These established his reputation as a writer of taste, and
during the next twenty years he wrote a large number of stories and
tales, most of which were originally published in newspapers and
reviews. His constant aim was not only to please the reading public, but
also to inculcate the principles of sound morality.
His next venture was the co-principalship of a private school at Nantes,
but he soon resigned his position and became the editor of a paper at
Brest. This he was soon compelled to give up for political reasons, and
he then accepted a professorship of rhetoric in the same place, and
afterwards in Mühlhausen.
The professor's chair, however, does not seem to have been congenial to
his tastes, for in 1836 he removed to Paris, determined to devote
himself exclusively to literature. He took up his abode in the fourth
story of a house in a retired part of the city, and of his life there he
gives us charming glimpses in his "Philosophe sous les Toits." His
thoroughly human and sympathetic nature made him a favorite with all who
knew him, especially with the laboring classes, with whom he loved to
associate. It is to this circumstance that we owe "Les Confessions d'un
Ouvrier."
The State in 1848 founded an "École d'Administration," in order to train
young men for the civil service, and he was made one of the professors.
Here he delivered four lectures to workingmen, which were very popular;
but when Louis Napoleon overthrew the republic he regarded Souvestre's
lectures as dangerous to his pretensions, and they were suppressed.
In 1851 the French Academy awarded him a prize for his work "Un
Philosophe sous les Toits." In 1853 he was invited by Vinet to visit
Switzerland in order to deliver a series of popular lectures on
literature, which were received with great favor. Soon after his return
to Paris he died, July 5, 1854.