Théodore de Banville

Théodore de Banville
Théodore de Banville, photograph by Nadar
Born	Théodore Faullain de Banville (1823-03-14)14 March 1823 Moulins, Allier, France
Died	13 March 1891(1891-03-13) (aged 67) Paris, France
Resting place	Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France
Occupation	Writer, poet
Nationality	French
Period	19th century
Genre	Poetry, dramaturgy, theatre, short story, essay
Literary movement	Romanticism, Symbolism
Notable works	Odes Funambulesques (1857) Les Exilés (1867) Petit Traité de Poésie Française (1871)
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Théodore Faullain de Banville (14 March 1823 – 13 March 1891) was a French poet and writer.

Biography

Banville was born in Moulins in Allier, Auvergne, the son of Claude Théodore Faullain de Banville, a captain in the French navy, and his wife, Zélie Huet. His boyhood, by his own account, was cheerlessly passed at a lycée in Paris; he was not harshly treated, but took no part in the amusements of his companions. On leaving school with but slender means of support, he devoted himself to letters, and in 1842 published his first volume of verse (Les Cariatides), which was followed by Les Stalactites in 1846. The poems encountered some adverse criticism, but secured for their author the approbation and friendship of Alfred de Vigny and Jules Janin.

From then on, Banville's life was steadily devoted to literary production and criticism. He printed other volumes of verse, among which the Odes funambulesques (1857) received unstinted praise from Victor Hugo, to whom they were dedicated. Later, several comedies in verse were produced at the Théâtre Français and on other stages; and from 1853 onwards a stream of prose flowed from his industrious pen, including studies of Parisian manners, sketches of well-known persons, and a series of tales, most of which were republished in his collected works (1875–1878). He also wrote freely for reviews, and acted as dramatic critic for more than one newspaper. He sometimes wrote under the pen-names Francis Lambert and François Villon. Throughout a life spent mainly in Paris, Banville's genial character and cultivated mind won him the friendship of the chief men of letters of his time.

Legacy

In 1858 he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, and was promoted to an Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1886. He died in Paris in 1891 at the age of 68, and was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.

There is a street named after him in the 17th Arrondissement in Paris.

Works

• Les Cariatides (1842)
• Les Stalactites (1846)
• Odelettes (1856)
• Odes funambulesques et Le Sang de la Coupe (1857)
• Esquisses parisiennes (1859)
• La Mer de Nice—Lettres à un ami (1865)
• Contributions au Parnasse contemporain (1866, 1871, 1876)
• Les Camées parisiens (1866)
• Les Exilés (1867)
• Nouvelles odes funambulesques (1869)
• Idylles prussiennes (1870–1871)
• Petit Traité de poésie française (1871)
• Théophile Gautier (1872)
• Trente-six Ballades joyeuses (1873)
• Rondels composés à la manière de Charles d'Orléans et Les Princesses (1874)
• Les Occidentales et Rimes dorées (1875)
• Roses de Noël (1878)
• Contes pour les Femmes (1881)
• Contes féeriques (1882)
• Mes souvenirs (1882)
• Nous tous (1883)
• Contes héroïques (1884)
• Contes bourgeois (1885)
• Lettres chimériques (1885)
• Les Servantes (1885)
• Le Forgeron (1887)
• Madame Robert (1887)
• Les Belles Poupées (1888)
• Marcelle Rabe (1891)
• Sonnailles et clochettes (1891)

Translated into English

• "How a Woman Loved." In: Romance, Vol. II, No. 1 (1891)
• "Gringoire," Poet Lore, Vol. XXVII, No. 2 (1916)

References

Barbey d'Aurevilly, J. (1889), "M. Théodore de Banville", Les Œuvres et les Hommes, 10, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, pp. 229–44.

Baudelaire, Charles (1922), "Théodore de Banville", L'Art Romantique, Paris: Louis Conard, pp. 350–60.

Beum, Robert (1997), "Ultra-Royalism Revisited: An Annotaded Bibliography" (PDF), Modern Age, XXXIX (3): 291–316.

Dalmolin, Eliane F. (1996–1997), "Modernity Revisited: Past and Present Female Figures in the Poetry of Banville and Baudelaire", Nineteenth-Century French Studies, XXV (1/2): 78–91CS1 maint: date format (link).

Essarts, Emmanuel des (1903), "Théodore de Banville", Revue Bleue, XX: 228–33.

Evans, David (2013), "Théodore de Banville and the Mysteries of Song", in Weliver, Phyllis; Ellis, Katharine (eds.), Words and Notes in the Long Nineteenth Century, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, pp. 165–82, ISBN 9781843838111.

Forrest, Jennifer (2005), "Théodore De Banville and Funambulesque Aesthetics", Dalhousie French Studies, LXXII: 17–31.

France, Anatole (1922), "Théodore De Banville", On Life & Letters, 4, London: John Lane, pp. 219–27.

Gershuny, Walter (1999), "Tripping The Light Fantastic With Théodore De Banville", Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, X (3): 253–61.

Gosse, Edmund (1925), "Théodore de Banville", Silhouettes, London: William Heinemann, pp. 345–51.

Kaster, L.E. (1903), A History of French Versification, Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Lang, Andrew (1912), "Théodore de Banville", Essays in Little, London: Longmans, Green & Co., pp. 51–76.

Mallarmé, Stéphane (1893), "Théodore de Banville", Mercure de France, VII: 97–102.

Prothero, R.E. (1891), "Théodore de Banville", The Nineteenth Century, XXX (174): 275–84.

Robertson, William John (1895), A Century of French Verse, London: A.D. Innes & Co.

Rosières, Raoul (1896), "Théodore de Banville", Recherches sur la Poésie Contemporaine, Paris: A. Laisney, pp. 303–29.

Sainte-Beuve, C.A. (1862), "Poésies Complètes de Théodore de Banville", Causeries du Lundi, 14, Paris: Garnier Frères, pp. 69–85.

Schaffer, Aaron (1921), "The Sources of Théodore de Banville's Gringoire", Modern Language Notes, XXXVI (4): 225–29, doi:10.2307/2914933.

Schaffer, Aaron (1922), "The Trente-six Ballades Joyeuses of Theodore de Banville", Modern Language Notes, XXXVII (6): 328–33.

Storey, Robert F. (1985), "Pierrot Narcissique: Théodore de Banville", Pierrots on the Stage of Desire: Nineteenth-century French Literary Artists and the Comic Pantomime, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 127–51, ISBN 0691066280.

Symons, Arthur (1891), "Théodore de Banville", The Macmillan's Magazine, LXIV (379): 56–60.

Verhaeren, Émile (1927), "Théodore de Banville", Impressions, 2, Paris: Mercure de France, pp. 175–82.

Warren, F.M. (1891), "Obituary: Théodore De Banville", Modern Language Notes, VI (5): 158–59.

External links

• Works by Théodore de Banville at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Théodore de Bainville at Hathi Trust
• Works by Théodore de Banville at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Complete Poetic Works