author
Edgar Quinet
1803–1874
A restless liberal mind of 19th-century France, he wrote history, poetry, and political works with equal urgency. Exile, revolution, and fierce debates over religion and democracy all shaped the voice that made him such a vivid public writer.
1 Audiobook
Des jésuites
by Jules Michelet, Edgar Quinet
About the author
Born in Bourg-en-Bresse on February 17, 1803, Edgar Quinet became known in France as a writer, historian, poet, and political thinker. Early in his career he was drawn to German ideas and helped introduce them to French readers, including through work connected with Herder.
Quinet taught at the Collège de France and was closely linked with the republican and liberal currents of his time. He strongly criticized clerical power in politics, supported the Revolution of 1848, and after Napoleon III's coup he spent years in exile, especially in Belgium and Switzerland.
His books range across history, religion, politics, and literature, and they reflect both wide learning and a strong moral voice. He died at Versailles on March 27, 1875, but he remains remembered as one of the French nineteenth century's most engaged men of letters.