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Alphonse de Lamartine

Epigraph

“If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and outstanding results are the  three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in  modern history with Muhammad?” Alphonse de Lamartine, Foreign Minister of  France, in his book History of Turkey

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Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine 1.jpg Albumin photograph by Nadar, 1856
Born Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790-10-21)21 October 1790 Mâcon, Burgundy, France
Died 28 February 1869(1869-02-28) (aged 78) Paris, France
Occupation Writer, poet, politician
Literary movement Romanticism

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (French pronunciation: [al.fɔ̃s.də.la.maʁ’tin] ; 21 October 1790 – 28 February 1869) was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.

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Career [edit]

Lamartine was born in Mâcon, Burgundy, on 21 October 1790.[1] His family was part of the French provincial nobility, and he spent his youth at the family estate. Lamartine 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 masterly in his use of French poetic forms. Raised a devout Catholic, Lamartine became a pantheist, writing Jocelyn and La Chute d’un ange. He wrote Histoire des Girondins in 1847 in praise of the Girondists.

Lamartine in front of the Hôtel de Ville of Paris, on February 25, 1848, by Félix Philippoteaux.

He worked for the French embassy in Italy from 1825 to 1828. In 1829, he was elected a member of the Académie française. He was elected a deputy in 1833 and was briefly in charge of the government during the turbulence of 1848. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 24 February 1848 to 11 May 1848. Due to his great age, Jacques-Charles Dupont de l’Eure, Chairman of the Provisional Government, effectively delegated many of his duties to Lamartine. He was then a member of the Executive Commission, the political body which served as France’s joint Head of State.

Lamartine was instrumental in the founding of the Second Republic of France, having met with Republican Deputies and journalists in the Hôtel de Ville to agree on the makeup of its provisional government. Lamartine himself was chosen to declare the Republic in traditional form in the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville.

During his term as a politician in the Second Republic, 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 short-lived national workshop programs. A political idealist who supported democracy and pacifism, his moderate stance on most issues caused many of his followers to desert him. He was an unsuccessful candidate to the presidential election of 10 December 1848, receiving fewer than 19,000 votes. He subsequently retired from politics and dedicated himself to literature. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1825.

Death and legacy [edit]

Alphonse de Lamartine, ca.1865

Lamartine ended his life in poverty, publishing monthly installments of the Cours familier de littérature to support himself. He died in Paris in 1869.

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.

Lamartine, by Henri Decaisne (Musée de Mâcon)

Alphonse de Lamartine signing

On Catholic priests [edit]

Alphonse de Lamartine as quoted in “A Priest” By Robert Nash (1943) on Catholic priests:

There is a man in every parish, having no family, but belonging to a family that is worldwide; who is called in as a witness and adviser in all the important affairs of human life. No one comes into the world or goes out of it without his ministrations. He takes the child from its mother’s arms, and parts with him only at the grave. He blesses and consecrates the cradle, the bridal chamber, the bed of death, and the bier. He is one whom innocent children instinctively venerate and reverence, and to whom men of venerable age come to seek for wisdom, and call him father; at whose feet men fall down and lay bare the innermost thoughts of their souls, and weep their most sacred tears. He is one whose mission is to console the afflicted, and soften the pains of body and soul; to whose door come alike the rich and the poor. He belongs to no social class, because he belongs equally to all. He is one, in fine, who knows all, has a right to speak unreservedly, and whose speech, inspired from on high, falls on the minds and hearts of all with the authority of one who is divinely sent, and with the constraining power of one who has an unclouded faith.[2]

Bibliography [edit]

French literature
by category
French literary history
French writers
Portals
  • Saül (1818)
  • Méditations poétiques (1820)
  • Nouvelles Méditations (1823)
  • Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (1830)
  • Sur la politique rationnelle (1831)
  • Voyage en Orient (1835)
  • Jocelyn (1836)
  • La chute d’un ange (1838)
  • Recueillements poétiques (1839)
  • Histoire des Girondins (1847)
  • Histoire de la Révolution (1849)
  • Histoire de la Russie (1849)
  • Raphaël (1849)
  • Confidences (1849)
  • Geneviève, histoire d’une servante (1851)
  • Graziella (1852)
  • Les visions (1853)
  • Histoire de la Turquie (1854)
  • Cours familier de littérature (1856)

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Whitehouse, Henry Remsen (1918). The Life of Lamartine, Volume 1. BiblioBazaar (2009). p. 13. ISBN 978-1-115-29659-5. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
  2. ^ in Nash, Robert “A Priest”

Further reading [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alphonse de Lamartine
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alphonse de Lamartine
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de.
Political offices
Preceded by Jacques-Charles Dupont de l’Eure Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic Head of State of France 1848-05-06–1848-06-28 Member of the Executive Commission along with: François Arago Louis-Antoine Garnier-Pagès Alexandre Ledru-Rollin Pierre Marie (de Saint-Georges) Succeeded by Louis-Eugène Cavaignac President of the Council of Ministers
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Persondata
Name Lamartine, Alphonse De
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth 21 October 1790
Place of birth Mâcon, Burgundy, France
Date of death 28 January 1869
Place of death Paris, France

Categories: France

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  1. Pingback: Video of the Astonishing story of Prophet Muhammad: Peace Symposium Malta, 2013 | The Muslim Times
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