[1] The son of a civil servant, he adopted his father's career, but as early as 1812 he distinguished himself by an ode, La Paix conquise, which won the praise of Napoleon.

To further the cause of romanticism he founded with Victor Hugo La Muse Française (1824), a journal to which he contributed verses and stories signed "Le Jeune Moraliste."

Four years afterward he collected and published Etudes française et étrangères (1828), consisting of poems and translations.

He published La paix conquise (1812), an ode which won the praise of Napoleon; Contes physiologiques (1854); and Réalités fantastiques (1854).

He also collaborated with Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eugène Scribe on the libretti of Les Huguenots (1836) and Le prophète (1849).