Ernest Hello
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
.
Life
He was born at TréguierTréguier
Tréguier is a port town in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is the capital of the province of Trégor.-Geography:Tréguier is located 36 m. N.W. of Saint-Brieuc by road. The port is situated about 5½ m...
, in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
. He was the son of a lawyer who held posts of great importance at Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
and in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and was well educated at both places, but took to no profession and resided much, for a time, in his father's country-house in Brittany. A very strong Roman Catholic, he appears to have been specially excited by his countryman Renan
Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
's attitude to religious matters, and coming under the influence of JA Barbey d'Aurevilly
Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly
Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly was a French novelist and short story writer. He specialised in mystery tales that explored hidden motivation and hinted at evil without being explicitly concerned with anything supernatural...
and Louis Veuillot
Louis Veuillot
Louis Veuillot was a French journalist and author who helped to popularize ultramontanism ....
, the two most brilliant crusaders of the Church in the press, he started a newspaper of his own, Le Croisé ("The Crusader"), in 1859; but it only lasted two years.
He wrote, however, much in other papers. He had very bad health, suffering apparently from spinal or bone disease. But he was fortunate enough to meet with a wife, Zoë Berthier, who, ten years older than himself, and a friend for some years before their marriage, became his devoted nurse, and even brought upon herself abuse from gutter journalists of the time for the care with which she guarded him.
Works
Hello's work is somewhat varied in form but uniform in spirit. His best-known book, Physionomie de saints (1875), which has been translated into English (1903) as Studies in Saintship, does not display his qualities best. Contes extraordinaires, published not long before his death, is better and more original.But the real Hello is to be found in a series of philosophical and critical essays, from Renan, l'Allemagne et l'atheisme (1861), through L'Homme (1871) and Les Plateaux de la balance (1880), perhaps his chief book, to the posthumously published Le Siècle.
The peculiarity of his standpoint and the originality and vigour of his handling make his studies, of Shakespeare, Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
and others, of abiding importance as literary "triangulations," results of object, subject and point of view.