Brunetière, Ferdinand (1849-1906). French critic, teacher at the École Normale Supérieure, director of the Revue des deux mondes from 1893, and author of Études critiques sur l'histoire de la littérature française (1880-1925). A dogmatist, he stressed the moral responsibility of literature, and fought the impressionism of France or Lemaître. Following Sainte-Beuve and Taine, influenced by Darwinism, he introduced genre and its evolution as a factor in the explanation of literature, along with biographical and social conditions (L'Évolution de la poésie lyrique en France au XIXe siècle, 1894). Committed to classicism, he censured contemporary literature, notably Baudelaire and (in Le Roman naturaliste, 1882) Zola. Despite his militancy against Dreyfus and late conversion to the Catholic faith, his Manuel d'histoire de la littérature française (1897) was a major influence on the literary canon of the Third Republic.

— Antoine Compagnon

(fĕrdēnäN' brünətyĕr') , 1849–1906, French literary critic. An opponent of naturalism, he believed that literature should reflect a moral order. His vast learning is evident in the masterly Manuel de l'histoire de la littérature française (1897) and in the history of French literature from 1515, most of which was published (1904–17) posthumously from his notes.