Augustin Filon

Born in Paris in 1841, Augustin Filon was a French professor of rhetoric, critic, journalist, and author. He was the son of the historian Charles Auguste Désiré Filon, and his own writing ranged across fiction, biography, literary criticism, and commentary on contemporary English politics, art, and literature.

After earning the agrégation in letters, he became tutor to the Prince Imperial in 1867 and stayed closely connected to the imperial circle through the fall of the Second Empire and the family's years in England. That experience gave his work a distinctive angle: he was deeply engaged with both French public life and English culture, and he wrote about each with the eye of an attentive insider.

Filon published on subjects as varied as Shakespeare, Prosper Mérimée, Victorian drama, caricature, and British society. He died in Croydon on May 13, 1916. Today he is remembered as a graceful, wide-ranging writer who helped French readers make sense of English literary and political life.