Background
He was born Feb. 14, 1828, at Dieuze, Lorraine.
He was born Feb. 14, 1828, at Dieuze, Lorraine.
A brilliant and lively student, About was a fellow at the French school in Greece from 1851 to 1853.
Failing as a playwright, he remained primarily a publicist, though his fame rests on his sprightly, almost wholly farcical novels, where wit, clarity, and the art of saying everything well reveal him as one of the wittiest of all French writers. Reliance on facile banter has, however, kept him from a place with the greatest French authors.
Napoleon III decorated him for his sympathy for the Second Empire (1851-1870). After the Franco-Prussian War, About turned ardent republican and exerted great influence with his paper, the XIXe SiècleSiecle. But to the end he remained anticlerical, attacking with satire and ridicule the alliance of old royalists and Catholics.
Today About is known particularly for his cartoonlike novels, such as Le Roi des montagnes (1856); L'Homme àa l'oreille cassée;cassee; Le cas de M. Guérin;Guerin; and Le Nez d'un notaire, the former in 1861, and the last two in 1862. He was elected to the French Academy, but before he could be seated, he died in Paris on Jan. 16, 1885.
He remained anticlerical, attacking with satire and ridicule the alliance of old royalists and Catholics.
After the Franco-Prussian War, About turned ardent republican.