Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin, a French writer, and one of the greatest of modern critics; born in Boulogne, France, in 1804. He studied medicine at Paris, but abandoned that science in favor of literature, his first work of importance being on the French literature of the 16th century. In 1840 he was appointed conservator of the Mazarin Library, and in 1845 admitted a member of the French Academy. In 1852 he was appointed Professor of Latin Poetry in the College of France; he also lectured for some years on French literature at the Ecole Normale Superieure. Most of his critical writings have been republished in various editions. He also wrote three volumes of poetry. He died in Paris in 1869.
Entry from
Everybody's Cyclopedia,
1912.