author
Henry Houssaye
1848–1911
Remembered for vivid, accessible histories of Napoleon’s final campaigns, he brought a storyteller’s energy to serious scholarship and earned a seat in the Académie française. His work also ranged from ancient Greece to art and literary criticism, reflecting a broad curiosity shaped by Parisian literary life.
1 Audiobook
Cleopatra: A Study
by Henry Houssaye
About the author
Born in Paris on February 24, 1848, Henry Houssaye was a French historian, art critic, and literary critic. He was the son of writer Arsène Houssaye, and he built his own reputation through historical writing rather than fiction. Early in his career, he wrote about classical antiquity, drawing in part on travel in Greece.
Houssaye later became especially known for his studies of Napoleon and the campaigns of 1814 and 1815. His histories were valued for combining careful research with a lively, readable style, which helped make military and political history approachable for a wider audience.
In 1894 he was elected to the Académie française, a sign of the esteem he had earned in French literary and scholarly circles. He died in Paris on September 23, 1911, leaving behind a body of work that kept historical subjects vivid and human for his readers.