Background
Vigny was born on March 27, 1797 in Loches, France. His father was a 60-year-old veteran of the Seven Years' War who died before Vigny's 20th birthday; his mother, 20 years younger, was a strong-willed woman who was inspired by Rousseau.
(At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a generation of French...)
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a generation of French soldiers found themselves haunted by defeat and disappointment. One of these soldiers was Alfred de Vigny, an aristocratic poet who also served as a garrison officer. The Warrior's Life consists of his enigmatic reflections, autobiographical anecdotes and philosophical meditations on the nature of war and the strange life of the soldier, vividly conveying the deprivation and discipline of military service, but also its comradeship, stoicism and stern code of duty. Looking back to a lost age of military valour, haunted by dreams of former glory, this is one of the great works of early nineteenth-century Romanticism. Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863) came from an ancient military family that was impoverished by the French Revolution. In 1814 he joined the royal bodyguard, in which he served for thirteen years, but he never saw serious action.The feeling of stasis and regret this engendered, of having been just too young to have been involved in the drama and high adventure of the Napoleonic Wars is the great theme of his most famous work, The Military Life (Servitude et grandeur militaires). Even before he had resigned from the army he was already famous as a key French writer of the Romantic movement, through such works as his Poèmes antiques et modernes (1826). Much of the remainder of his life was spent withdrawn from Parisian society, dogged by financial worries and caring for his mother and his invalid wife. His remaining major works were published posthumously: most notably Journal d'un poète and the poems Les Destinées. Roger Gard, who died in 2000, was educated at Abbotsholme School, Derbyshire, in the Royal Artillery and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.He was Emeritus Reader in English in the University of London. He was the author of books on Henry James, Jane Austen and the teaching of fiction in schools. He also edited Henry James's A Landscape Painter and Other Tales, The Jolly Corner and Other Tales and a selection of his literary criticism, The Critical Muse, for Penguin Classics.
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(Servitude and Grandeur of Arms consists of reflections, a...)
Servitude and Grandeur of Arms consists of reflections, arguments and autobiographical anecdotes surrounding three longer narratives. These include an episode on the high seas with Admiral Collingwood, a glimpse into Marie-Antoinette's court, scenes from the campaign of 1814 against the Russians and the Paris revolution of 1830, and an overheard conversation between Napoleon and the Pope - part of what is probably the most telling and dramatic portrait of the emperor in literature. Yet these are essentially the stories of gruff and grizzled veterans, bound by a stern code of duty and honour, who reveal unexpected depths of humanity. De Vigny vividly conveys the savagery of war, the dreariness, deprivation and discipline of military service, but also its comradeship, stoicism and fundamental uprightness. The result is a strange and subtle masterpiece.
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Vigny was born on March 27, 1797 in Loches, France. His father was a 60-year-old veteran of the Seven Years' War who died before Vigny's 20th birthday; his mother, 20 years younger, was a strong-willed woman who was inspired by Rousseau.
After an unhappy schooling in Paris, Vigny followed the family tradition and chose a military career.
While stationed near Paris, Vigny began to contribute to Victor Hugo's review, Le Conservateur littéraire, and associated himself with the first generation of French Romantic writers. In 1822 he published a small volume of poetry, Poèmes, reprinting it in 1826 with additions as Poèmes antiques et modernes. Vigny's only other poetry was a posthumous collection, Les Destinées (1864), and six philosophical poems printed in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Disgusted with the monotony of garrison life and disappointed by his lack of promotion, Vigny retired from the army in 1827 and devoted himself entirely to letters. Leading the rising interest in Shakespeare, he made a translation of Othello, which was produced at the Comédie Française in 1829. This was followed by a Romantic drama in prose, La Maréchale d'Ancre (1831), and a one-act comedy, Quitte pour la peur (1833), written for the actress Marie Dorval, with whom he had become infatuated. His most famous play is Chatterton (1835), another Romantic drama, which gives a Gallic, unhistorical representation of the suicide of the English poet Thomas Chatterton. The play develops one of Vigny's favorite themes, the misunderstood genius. Under the influence of Sir Walter Scott, Vigny wrote the first important historical novel in French, Cinq-Mars (1826), the tale of a thwarted conspiracy under King Louis XIII. Other major prose works included Stello (1832), a collection of romanticized studies of the poets Nicolas Gilbert, Chatterton, and André Chénier, and the tripartite novel Servitude et grandeur militaires, which developed the theme of military self-abnegation and honor. Before middle age Vigny retired to a solitude, which the poet Sainte-Beuve called the "Ivory Tower. " Vigny died in Paris on September 16, 1863.
(Servitude and Grandeur of Arms consists of reflections, a...)
(At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a generation of French...)
In 1825 Vigny married Lydia Bunbury.