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Alfred De VignyFrench poet and romantic writer. Goems: "Moses", "Flood", psychological drama "Chatterton", books of poems "Diary of a Poet"/
Date of Birth: 27.03.1797
Country:  France |
Content:
Alfred de Vigny: A Biography
Alfred de Vigny was a French poet and writer of the Romantic movement. His works include poems, psychological dramas, and collections of poetry. According to Vigny, human beings are alone in the face of a blind force of nature that is indifferent to their joys and sorrows. However, he believed that lamenting one's fate is degrading, and the only worthy position is to stoically accept the inevitable.
Early Life
Vigny studied at one of the schools in Paris, but he chose a military career, following a family tradition. He served near Paris and published poems in Victor Hugo's journal, "Conservateur littéraire." He became acquainted with the first circle of French Romantic writers. In 1822, he released a small collection of poems titled "Poèmes," which was later expanded and reissued in 1826 as "Poèmes antiques et modernes." The rest of Vigny's poetic legacy is included in the posthumous collection "Les Destinées" (1864), which also includes six philosophical poems published during the author's lifetime in the journal "Revue des deux mondes."
Literary Career
Unable to bear the monotony of garrison life, which offered no prospects for advancement, Vigny retired from the military in 1827 and devoted himself entirely to literature. Riding the wave of growing interest in Shakespeare, he translated "Othello" into French in 1829. He then wrote the romantic drama in prose "La Maréchale d'Ancre" (1831) and the one-act comedy "Quitte pour la peur" (1833). Vigny's most famous play, "Chatterton" (1835), is dedicated to his favorite theme - the fate of an unrecognized genius. Under the influence of Walter Scott, Vigny created the first significant historical novel in French, "Saint-Mars" (1826). Among his major prose works are also the novel "Stello" (1832), consisting of three novelized studies about poets N. Gilbert, Chatterton, and A. Chenier, and the three-part novel "Servitude et grandeur militaires" (fully published in 1835) - about nobility and self-sacrifice of a soldier.
Later Life and Legacy
In the prime of his life, Vigny secluded himself in solitude, retreating, in the words of Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, into an "ivory tower."
