Année embraced early on the cause of freedom, but being in Paris at the times of the 20 June, the 10 August and the September Massacres, misfortunes and events made a deep impression on him, since he never ceased to rise against its excesses.
During the reign of Terror, he was in the army, shelter and security asylum for men who did not occupy positions high enough to give rise to desire or arouse the fears of authority.
Some months after the Chute de Robespierre [fr], Année returned to Paris and published under the title Réhabilitateur a magazine devoted to avenge the victims of the Terror.
He previously co-wrote some vaudevilles and contributed literary articles to several periodicals, including the Revue encyclopédique [fr], the Mercure du XIXe siècle and Le Constitutionnel.
At a time when the critic Julien Louis Geoffroy threw consternation behind the scenes, Année gathered his various judgments, opposed them to each other and wrote a book that was assigned to Pigault-Lebrun.