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History of the Girondists; or, Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution - Volume I (Dodo Press)
History of the Girondists or Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution Volume I - Dodo Press Author:Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790-1869) was a French writer, poet and politician, born in Mâcon, Burgundy into French provincial nobility. He is famous for his partly autobiographical poem, Le Lac (The Lake), which describes in retrospect the fervent love shared by a couple from the point of view of the bereaved man. Lamartine was ... more »masterly in his use of French poetic forms. He was one of very few French literary figures to combine his writing with a political career. Raised a devout Catholic Lamartine became a pantheist, writing Jocelyn (1836) and La Chute d'un Ange (1838). He wrote Histoire des Girondins in 1847 in praise of the Girondists. During his term as a politician in the Second Republic of France, he led efforts that eventually led to the abolition of slavery and the death penalty, as well as the enshrinement of the right to work and the shortlived national workshop programs. He is considered to be the first French romantic poet (though Charles-Julien Lioult de Chênedollé was working on similar innovations at the same time), and was acknowledged by Paul Verlaine and the Symbolists as an important influence.« less