Claude Charles Fauriel

He was twice in the army—at Perpignan in 1793, and in 1796–1797 at Briançon, as private secretary to General J Servan de Gerbey (1741–1808); but he preferred the civil service and the companionship of his friends and his books.

In 1794 he returned to St Etienne, where, but only for a short period, he filled a municipal office; and from 1797 to 1799 he devoted himself to strenuous study, more especially of the literature and history, both ancient and modern, of Greece and Italy.

His health also resulted in his resigning his office in the following year, though his actions also had something to do with his scruples about serving longer under Napoleon, when the latter, in violation of his declared republican principles, became consul for life.

[1] Some articles which Fauriel published in the Decade philosophique (1800) on a work of Madame de Staël's—De la littérature considerée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales—led to friendship with her.

Those who enjoyed his closest intimacy were the physiologist Cabanis (Madame de Condorcet's brother-in-law), the poet Alessandro Manzoni, the publicist Benjamin Constant, and François Guizot.

Fauriel had a preconceived and somewhat fanciful theory that Provence was the cradle of the chansons de geste and even of the Round Table romances; but he gave a great stimulus to the scientific study of Old French and Provençal.