Background
Augier shares with Alexandre Dumas fils the position as creator of the Realistic drama. His first plays, written in verse, attack the Romantic fictions still very popular in his time.
Augier was one of the most successful of French dramatists: between 1845 and 1900, there were 2,656 performances of his plays at the ComédieComedie FrançaiseFrancaise alone. He withdrew from the stage at the height of his popularity, after Les Fourchambault (1878; The House of Fourchambault), ending his career much as he had begun it, with a play devoted to the preservation of the integrity of the family.