the case with his second
work, Riche et Pauvre', met with a very favorable reception. His
reputation was now made, and between this period and his death he gave
to France about sixty volumes--tales, novels, essays, history, and
drama.

A double purpose was always very conspicuous in his books: he aspired to
the role of a moralist and educator, and was likewise a most impressive
painter of the life, character, and morals of the inhabitants of
Brittany.

The most significant of his books are perhaps 'Les Derniers Bretons
(1835-1837, 4 vols.), Pierre Landais (1843, 2 vols.), Le Foyer Breton
(1844, 2 vols.), Un Philosophe sons les Toits, crowned by the Academy
(1850), Confessions d'un Ouvrier (1851), Recits et Souvenirs (1853),
Souvenirs d'un Vieillard (1854); also La Bretagne Pittoresque (1845),
and, finally, Causeries Historiques et Litteraires (1854, 2 vols.)'.
His comedies deserve honorable mention: 'Henri Hamelin, L'Oncle Baptiste
(1842), La Parisienne, Le Mousse, etc'. In 1848, Souvestre was appointed
professor of the newly created school of administration, mostly devoted
to popular lectures. He held this post till 1853, lecturing partly in
Paris, partly in Switzerland.

His death, when comparatively young, left a distinct gap in the literary
world. A life like his could not be extinguished without general sorrow.
Although he was unduly modest, and never aspired to the role of a
beacon-light in literature, always seeking to remain in obscurity,
the works of Emile Souvestre must be placed in the first rank by their
morality and by their instructive character. They will always command
the entire respect and applause of mankind. And thus it happens that,
like many others, he was only fully appreciated after his death.

Even those of his 'confreres' who did not seem to esteem him, when
alive, suddenly found out that they had experienced a great loss in
his demise. They expressed it in emotional panegyrcs; contemporaneous
literature discovered that virtue had flown from its bosom, and the
French Academy, which had at its proper time crowned his 'Philosophe
sons les Toits' as a work contributing supremely to morals, kept his
memory green by bestowing on his widow the "Prix Lambert," designed for
the "families of authors who by their integrity, and by the probity
of their efforts have well deserved this token from the Republique des
Lettres."

JOSEPH BERTRAND
de 'Academie Francais