Alexandre Soumet

Soumet moved to Paris in 1810 and wrote poems in honor of Napoleon that secured his nomination as auditeur of the Conseil d'État.

His elegy La pauvre fille appeared in 1814, and two successful tragedies produced in 1822, Clytemnestre and Saül, secured his admission to the Academy in 1824.

Elisabeth de France (1828) was a weak imitation of Schiller's Don Carlos but Soumet's real bent was towards epic poetry.

A poem inspired by Klopstock, La divine épopée, describes the descent of Christ into Hades.

Under Louis XVIII Soumet became librarian of Saint-Cloud, and subsequently was transferred to Rambouillet and to Compiègne.