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Jacques Henri Bernhardin de Saint-Pierre Biography

Jacques Henri Bernhardin de Saint-Pierre Image

SAINT-PIERRE, Jacques Henri Bernardin de (1737–1814). A French novelist, essayist, and engineer, born at Havre and educated at Caen. He made a voyage to Martinique, became an engineer, entered the army, was dismissed for insubordination, and for some years led a wandering life, appearing at Malta, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Dresden, and Berlin. In 1765 he went to Paris and essayed literary work, but in 1768 he obtained a government post in Ile de France, where he remained till 1771. On his return he associated much with Rousseau, on whom he modeled his character and his style. For the rest of his life he remained in France, publishing Voyage à l'Ile de France (1773); Etudes de la nature (1783–88); Paul et Virginie (1787); La chaumière indienne (1790). His Harmonies de la nature appeared posthumously. In 1792 he became superintendent of the Botanical Garden of Paris. He was professor of morals at the Normal School in 1794 and became a member of the Institute in 1795. Saint-Pierre's significance lies solely in the realm of imagination and sentiment, which is often childlike, sometimes childish. Paul et Virginie came at the right moment. Cloyed with wit, the Parisian literary generation of that time sought refuge in feeling. Saint-Pierre entered into the heritage of the novelist Rousseau, receiving and transmitting more of his romantic sentiment and sympathy with nature than any other. Paul et Virginie attempts to realize Rousseau's "state of nature" in a tropical Arcadia, and the death of the heroine comes just in time to save the idyl of innocent childhood from the sickly sentimentality on whose verge it often hangs trembling. Stylistically Saint-Pierre's influence has been very great. He was the first in France to treat landscape, with intent, as the background of life. Saint-Pierre's Works and Correspondence were edited with a Life by Aimé Martin, who married his widow (Paris, 1818–20).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 357.