Pierre-Marie-Charles de Bernard du Grail de la Villette

He was born in Besançon, member of a very ancient family of the Vivarais, was educated at the college of his native city, and studied for the law in Dijon and at Paris.

This first success in literature did not prevent him aspiring to the Magistrature, when the July Revolution broke out and induced him to enter politics.

Bernard had published a volume of odes: 'Plus Deuil que Joie' (1838), which was not much noticed, but a series of stories in the same year gained him the reputation of a genial 'conteur'.

'Gerfaut', generally acclaimed as his greatest work, crowned by the Academy, appeared also in 1838, then followed 'Le Paravent', another collection of short stories (1839); 'Les Ailes d'Icare' (1840); La Peau du Lion and La Chasse aux Amants (1841); L'Écueil (1842); Un Beau-père (1845); and 'Le Gentilhomme campagnard,' in 1847.

Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie wrote about Bernard with much praise: In The Paris Sketch Book [1] William Makepeace Thackeray discusses Bernard's writing: Henry James, in his French Poets and Novelists (1878), wrote: This article includes material from the preface (by Jules Claretie) to an English translation of Gerfaut