Alphonse Rabbe

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Alphonse Rabbe (born July 18, 1784 in Riez , † December 31, 1829 in Paris ) was a French historian, journalist, critic and author.

Life

The family circumstances of Alphonse Rabbe, who came from Riez, today in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department , are not known. The earlier biographies of Rabbe mention the year of birth 1786. In his dissertation from 1969 Lucienne de Wieclawik records July 18, 1784 as the date of birth. In addition to studying law in Provence , Alphonse Rabbe was interested in the performing arts. In 1802 Rabbe attended painting studios in Paris, including David . As a co-author and editor, Rabbe first appeared in 1808 when the travelogues of the diplomat and author Count Alexandre de Laborde (1773-1842) were published. In 1812 Rabbe joined the French military administration in Spain for two years and during this time became infected with a prostituting "gypsy" woman with syphilis . Returning to Marseille, Rabbe took part in the restoration as a journalist . Dissatisfied with political developments and his own advancement, Rabbe switched to the republican-liberal camp and founded the short-lived liberal- aesthetic magazine Le Phocéen .

From the 1820s onwards, Alphonse Rabbe worked as a highly respected journalist, historian and critic in Paris. His historical works were translated into German, Spanish and English at an early stage. Rabbe is counted among the "Frenetic Romantics" because of his deeply pessimistic essays, which justified self-destruction and suicide. His only known work today, the “Diary of a Pessimist”, was published posthumously in 1835 by his nephew Léon Rabbe. According to Rabbe, the manuscript of an unpublished novel La sœur grise was stolen and is now lost.

Rabbe was of bad repute. As a result of the complications of syphilis, he was considered to have fallen heavily on opium . His external appearance was finally distorted by the syphilis in the tertiary stage. Dumas described his face: “as if a tiger had torn his face to pieces”. Hugo compared his teeth to coals. After Rabbe had lost his housekeeper and lover Adélaïde-Ambroisine Poiré (1804-1828) to consumption and finally his dog on May 11, 1828, he died on New Year's Eve 1829, or, as others believe, early New Year's morning 1830 probably from an overdose of laudanum . According to Adèle Hugo, Rabbe accidentally added an overdose of laudanum to an analgesic face mask. The assumption of suicide is primarily based on Rabbe's written submissions about suicide "how to leave a smoky room" and is therefore controversial.

Works

  • Foreword to Voyage pittoresque en Espagne , published 1808 and collaboration with Voyage pittoresque en Autriche , published 1821-1821 by Alexandre de Laborde
  • Précis d'histoire de la Russie , 1812
  • Les Conspirateurs à Rome et les conspirateurs à Paris, parallèle historique, pour servir à l'éclaircissement d'une grande question en 1815, par R.-A. des Basses-Alpes , J.-F. Achard, Marseille, 1815, VII, 8 °, 63 pp.
  • Seconde et dernière Massénaire, servant de réplique au Mémoire justificatif du prince d'Essling, maréchal Masséna , A. Ricard, Marseille, 1816, 8 °, 52 pp.
  • Lettre sur l'utilité des journaux politiques publiée dans les départemens, et par occasion sur celui qui pourrait exister à Marseille; suivie d'un mot sur les missionnaires , Brissot-Thivars, Paris, 1820, 8 °, 38 pp.
  • De l'usage des couronnes donatives, civiles et militaires chez les anciens, et de l'excellence des couronnes civiques , Plancher, Paris, 1823, 8 °, 80 pp.
  • Résumé de l'histoire d'Espagne, depuis la conquête des Romains jusqu'à la révolution de l'île de Léon , Lecointe et Durey, Paris, 1823, 8 °, XXIV, 512 S, German edition in three volumes, translated by Heinrich Adolph Schümberg, Hilscher, Dresden, 1826
  • Résumé de l'histoire de Portugal: depuis les premiers temps de la monarchie jusqu'en 1823 , Lecointe, Paris, 1824
  • Résumé de l'histoire de Russie depuis l'établissement de Rourik et des Scandinaves jusqu'à nos jours, par Alphonse Rabbe , Lecointe et Durey, Paris, 1825, 12 °, XXIV, 740 pp.
  • Histoire d'Alexandre Ier, empereur de toutes les Russies, et des principaux événemens de son règne , Treuttel et Würtz, Paris, 1826, 8 °, 2 volumes
  • Notice on Benjamin Constant: extraite de la Biographie universelle et portative des contemporains , Au bureau de la Biographie des contemporains, Paris, 8 °, 41 pp.
  • Notice sur la vie politique et les travaux parlementaires de MG Canning, extraite de la Biographie universelle des contemporains, et suivie de réflexions sur son système politique, par Alph. Rabbe , Aucher-Éloy et compagnie, Paris, 1827, 8 °, 69 pp.
  • Notice sur Jacques-Louis David, par l'auteur de la notice sur Canning , Au bureau de la Biographie des contemporains, Paris, 8 °, 12 pp.
  • Album d'un pessimiste, variétés littéraires, politiques, morales et philosophiques. Oeuvres posthumes d'Alphonse Rabbe, Précédé d'une pièce de vers par Victor Hugo et d'une notice biographique par LF L'Héritier; publié par le neveu de l'auteur (Léon Rabbe). Dumont, Paris, 1835 (recte 1836),

literature

  • Louis Andrieux: Alphonse Rabbe , dissertation, Impr. Lahure, Paris, 1927.
  • Lucienne de Wieclawik: Alphonse Rabbe dans la mêlée politique et littéraire de la Restauration: thèse principale pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de l'Université de Paris, AG Nizet, 1963, 595 p.

Current issues

  • Five prose poems from a pessimist's album. Translated and commented by Joachim Schultz. in: Akzente 53, No. 3, C. Hanser, Munich, 2006
  • Joachim Schultz (ed.): From the diary of a pessimist; a perpetual calendar , in: Weisse Hefte, Ed. Schultz & Stellmacher, Bayreuth, 2004, 28 pp.
  • Edouard Roditi, Jacques-Remi Dahan (eds.): Album d'un pessimiste , J. Corti, Paris, 1991, 357 pp.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lucienne de Wieclawik: Alphonse Rabbe dans la mêlée politique et littéraire de la Restauration: thèse principale pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de l'Université de Paris, AG Nizet, 1963, p. 86
  2. ↑ Fernand Chaffiol-Debillemont: Suicides et misères romantiques, Robert Cayla, 1957, p. 125
  3. ^ Adèle Hugo: Victor Hugo, Carleton, 1863, p. 117
  4. ^ Felix Baumann, Paul Gutzwiller: Departure, Aspects of Romanticism in France, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1987, p. 64
personal data
SURNAME Rabbe, Alphonse
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French historian, journalist, author and critic
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1784
PLACE OF BIRTH Riez
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1829
Place of death Paris