author
comte de Armand Pontmartin
1811–1890
A sharp, combative voice in 19th-century French letters, he built his reputation on literary criticism that mixed strong political convictions with lively, often satirical prose. Best known for his long-running critical essays, he remained an active journalist and man of letters for decades.
1 Audiobook
Les Jeudis de Madame Charbonneau
by comte de Armand Pontmartin
About the author
Born in Avignon on July 16, 1811, Armand Augustin Joseph Marie Ferrard, Comte de Pontmartin, was a French journalist, literary critic, and man of letters. Sources consistently describe him as a writer shaped by Legitimist sympathies, and his criticism often reflected both literary judgment and political conviction.
He became known for a long series of essays and reviews published in periodicals and later gathered into books, including Causeries du samedi, Nouveaux samedis, and Souvenirs d’un vieux critique. Reference works describe him as an indefatigable journalist whose most famous title was Les Jeudis de Mme. Charbonneau.
Pontmartin died in Avignon on March 29, 1890. Remembered for his energetic, often polemical style, he stands as a vivid example of the 19th-century French critic who treated literature as part of a larger public and political conversation.