De Musset at an early age became a member of the cénacle or inner circle
of the Romantic writers, with whom he is intimately connected. In 1829
he published a volume of verse of great merit; this and the _Spectacle
dans un Fauteuil_ made him famous at once. He had an extremely
excitable, poetic temperament and a weak will, which rendered him
incapable of entering any useful employment, such as a position in the
French Embassy at Madrid, or writing regularly for periodicals, both of
these positions having been offered him. He was elected to the French
Academy in 1852 and did little work thereafter. His best work was done
in verse and in the drama, but his short stories are of extraordinary
merit. His poems (especially the _Nuits_) possess preëminently the
lyric quality, genuineness, originality and passion; his dramas, having
usually some proverb as a title, show great delicacy, grace, ingenuity
and wit; his short stories are exquisite. His style, in contrast to that
of Gautier, shows little care for form, and in many respects he may be
compared with the English poet Byron.
Important works: _Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie_ (1829), _Spectacle dans
un Fauteuil_ (1829), _Rolla_ (1833), _Nuits_ (1835 ff.); _Lettre à
Lamartine_ (1836), _Confessions d'un Enfant du Siècle_ (1836), _Poésies
Nouvelles_ (1840), _Comédies et Proverbes_ (1850-1851, about
fifteen), besides several _Nouvelles and Contes</I> (1837-1854), such
as: _Emmeline, Frédéric et Bernerette, Fils du Titien, Margot, Le Merle
Blanc, Croisilles_ (published in 1841), etc.
Edition: Charpentier, in 9 vols.; Lemerre, in 10 vols.