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Alfred Victor, comte de Vigny (1797-1863)
France
Born of a noble family, de Vigny joined the military in
1814. He was a good friend of Victor Hugo, and because of
that he soon was able to enter the romantic's salons. He
married in 1825 to Lydia Bunbury, an English woman. However
his marriage was complicated by his wife's poor health.
Finally, in 1827, he obtained the consent to leave the army
and he moved to Paris. In July 1830, Carlo X abdicated and
fled to England, giving the crown to Luigi Filippo. These
events confused Vigny, and he was undecided between his
humanitarian ambitions and his loyalty for the dynasty.
After a period of reflection he became interested in Saint-Simon's
doctrine and professed Republican tendencies. In 1848, he
unsuccesfully applied for deputate of Charente. In 1845
was accepted in the Académie Francaise, after many
a failed attempt. He was strongly pessimistic, and his lonely
nature conducted him to retirement in 1853, when he decided
to spend the last years of his life with his ill wife.
Criticism
His poetry (Poèmes antiques et
modernes, 1826; Les Destinèe, 1864) addressed
the human condition with a stoic and pessimistic approach.
The eternal conflict between dreams and reality and the
universality of pain are addressed by Vigny, who rejected
both desperation and credulity, and sought for a wisdom
without illusions. His output in prose and drama was minor.
(Stello, 1832, Servitude et grandeur militaires,
1835) and dramatic (La marèchale d'ancre 1831;
Chatterton, 1835) Vigny left numerous unedited works
of exceptional interest. Although he did not receive the
recognition he merited during his lifetime, next generations--
including writers as Charles Baudelaire and André
Breton--have revered his memory and his message.
Works
Poèmes antiques et modernes (1826)
Destinées (1864)
Cinq-Mars (1826, tr. The Spider and the Fly,
1925)
Stello (1832)
Servitude et grandeur militaires (1835, tr. The Military
Necessity, 1953)
Chatterton (1835, tr. 1908)
Journal d’un poète (1867)
Additional
Information
Vigny @ Poetes.com http://poetes.com/vigny
Alfred Vigny http://romantis.citeweb.net/vigny/html/vignindex.html
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