Abel François Villemain
Oxford Companion to French Literature:
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Abel-François Villemain
Villemain, Abel-François (1790-1870). French historian, literary critic, and politician, author of often-reprinted literary histories such as the Cours de littérature française (1828-9). As a professor of French eloquence during the Restoration, he was held in high esteem by members of the younger generation who were eager for political change (e.g. Michelet). In 1819 he published a study of Cromwell. Villemain played a significant political role during the July Monarchy, twice holding the key post of minister of public instruction. He left the government in 1844 for reasons of ill health and abandoned politics altogether after 1848, devoting himself to his writing (including his Souvenirs contemporains) and to the Académie Française.
[Ceri Crossley]
Villemain, Abel François (äbĕl' fräNswä' vēlmăN'), 1790-1870, French scholar and critic. He was a professor at the Sorbonne from 1816, held several government posts after 1830, and was permanent secretary of the French Academy from 1832. As minister of public instruction (1839-44) he was largely responsible for a reorganization of libraries in France and for promoting the passage of a law assuring academic freedom. His reputation as a literary critic was established by his Cours de littérature française (1830), several times reedited and enlarged, which included his notable Tableau de la littérature au moyen âge and Tableau de la littérature française au XVIIIe siècle.
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Oxford Companion to French Literature
The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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