Charles-Victor Prévot, vicomte d'Arlincourt (26 September 1788 — 22 January 1856) was a French novelist, born at the Château de Mérantais,

Magny-les-Hameaux Magny-les-Hameaux () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Population Education There are four preschools: Ecole Francis Jammes, Ecole André Gide, Ecole Petit Prince, and Ecole Jean Ba ...

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

. His father Louis-Adrien Prévost d'Arlincourt was guillotined on 8 May 1794, along with

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CNRS ( farmers-general. At the beginning of the First Empire, his mother pleaded his cause before Napoleon, who decided to name him ''écuyer'' ("squire") to

Madame Mère Maria-Letizia Buonaparte (née Ramolino; 24 August 1750 (or 1749) – 2 February 1836), known as Letizia Bonaparte, was a Corsican noblewoman, mother of Napoleon I of France. She became known as “” after the proclamation of the Empire. Sh ...

. At the age of 29, he married the daughter of a senator, and composed a tragedy, ''Charlemagne'', which was declined by the Théâtre-Français. In 1811 Napoleon appointed him as a master (''auditeur'') at the

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, then as an intendant in the Spanish army. He participated in the Spanish campaign and was present at the capture of

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. After the fall of Napoleon, he succeeded in ingratiating himself with

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, who named him

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. He bought a chateau and adopted the title of viscount. In 1818, he orchestrated a huge publicity campaign for the publication of his epic poem, ''Charlemagne, ou la Caroléide'', and presented himself before the

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, where his candidature obtained exactly one vote. Undiscouraged, he began work on a novel which he believed would bring him as great a reputation as Chateaubriand's. ''

Le Solitaire ''The Loner'' (French: ''Le Solitaire'') is a 1987 French crime film directed and co-written by Jacques Deray, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Pierre Malo, Michel Beaune and Pierre Vernier. It was the last in a series of commercial action films m ...

'' appeared in 1821 and achieved an "extraordinary, even colossal, celebrity." In the space of several months, the book was reprinted a dozen times; it was translated into ten languages; there were no fewer than seven operas based on its story, and twice as many dramatic adaptations; and it was the subject of innumerable songs, parodies, paintings and lithographs. The success of his next three novels, '' Le Renégat'' in 1822, '' Ipsiboé'' in 1823, and '' L'Étrangère'' in 1825, was almost as great. Adulated above all by his female readership, who saw him as "the new

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", he was harpooned by critics. His plot points were judged impossible, his characters cardboard, and his imagery grotesque. His taste for syntactic inversions, with which he generously adorned his prose, led to the nickname "the inversive Viscount", and the result was memorably parodied in ''Illusions perdues'' by Balzac (who, nevertheless, was strongly influenced in his first works by the gothic style of d'Arlincourt). The Academic Charles-Marie de Féletz wrote that "''Le Solitaire'' has so far been translated into every single known language, except of course French." Later assessments were no more favourable. His novels, now classified as "gothic", were then labelled ''frénétique'': "containing a mysterious intrigue centred on some illustrious and guilty wretch who traipses through a thousand violent incidents towards a bloody catastrophe." D'Arlincourt's vanity and egocentricity were the subject of many anecdotes, including a story of his attempts to persuade his portrait-painter,

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, to make his eyes look larger and larger, until they were "like those of an ox"; the result was still considered unsatisfactory by his wife, who confronted the painter, turning to her husband and telling him to "Do that thing with your eyes." (''Mon ami, fais tes yeux.'')''The Atheneum, or the Spirit of the English magazines.'' Volume III. April to September 1825. Boston: John Cotton. Pages 171ff. He also posed for

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. D'Arlincourt frequently defended himself in print, explaining that it was his goal to "spiritualize all the impressions of existence"; he presented a play he wrote in his youth, ''Le Siège de Paris'', at the Théâtre-Français in 1826, but it was promptly torn to pieces by the critics. Not always justly: some of the most ridiculed extracts are not in fact by him. He made two long journeys through Europe, in 1841 and 1844, visiting exiled princes, and on his return presented a new play, ''La Peste noire'', which was received no more favourably than the first. In 1848, outraged by the events of June, he published ''Dieu le veut!'' ("God wills it!"), a pamphlet which led to legal troubles for the author but also increased his popularity. In 1850 he published ''L'Italie rouge'', a hostile account of the

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. In the last years of his life, still "avid for acclaim", he was a frequent guest of salons.

Notes

Works

;Novels *''Une Matinée de Charlemagne, fragmens tirés d'un poëme épique qui ne tardera point à paraître'' (1810) *''Charlemagne, ou La Caroléide, poème épique en vingt-quatre chants'' (1818)
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*''Le Solitaire'' (2 volumes, 1821). Réédition : Slatkine, Genève, 1973.
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*''Le Renégat'' (2 volumes, 1822)
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*''Ipsiboé'' (2 volumes, 1823) *''L'Étrangère'' (2 volumes, 1825) *''Ismalie, ou la Mort et l'amour, roman-poëme'' (2 volumes, 1828) *''Le Chef des Penitens noirs, ou le Proscrit et l'Inquisition'' (5 volumes, 1828) *''Les Rebelles sous Charles V'' (3 volumes, 1832) *''Les Écorcheurs, ou l'Usurpation et la peste, fragmens historiques, 1418'' (1833) *''Le Brasseur roi, chronique flamande du quatorzième siècle'' (2 volumes, 1834) *''Double Règne, chronique du treizième siècle'' (2 volumes, 1835) *''L'Herbagère'' (2 volumes, 1837) *''Les Trois Châteaux, histoire contemporaine'' (2 volumes, 1840) *''Ida et Nathalie'' (2 volumes, 1841) *''Les Anneaux d'une chaîne'' (2 volumes, 1845) *''Les Fiancés de la mort, histoire contemporaine'' (1850) *''La Tache de sang'' (5 volumes, 1851) *''Le Château de Chaumont'' (1851) ;Plays *''Le Siège de Paris, tragédie en 5 actes'', Paris, Théâtre-Français, 8 avril 1826. *''La Peste noire, ou Paris en 1334, drame en 5 actes et 7 tableaux dont 1 prologue'', Paris,

Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique The Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (, literally, Theatre of the Comic-Ambiguity), a former Parisian theatre, was founded in 1769 on the boulevard du Temple immediately adjacent to the Théâtre de Nicolet. It was rebuilt in 1770 and 1786, but in ...

, 7 avril 1845. ;Other works *''Le Pèlerin. L'Étoile polaire'' (2 volumes, 1843) *''Les Trois Royaumes'' (1844) *''L'Italie rouge, ou Histoire des révolutions de Rome, Naples, Palerme, Messine, Florence, Parme, Modène, Turin, Milan, Venise, depuis l'avènement du pape Pie IX, en juin 1846, jusqu'à sa rentrée dans sa capitale, en avril 1850'' (1850) ;Pamphlets *''Dieu le veut !'' (1848) *''Suite à Dieu le veut, par le Vte d'Arlincourt. Place au droit. Première partie. La Révolution et l'Élysée. Seconde partie. La Royauté et Frohsdorf'' (1850) {{DEFAULTSORT:Prevot, Charles Victor, Vicomte Darlincourt 1788 births 1856 deaths People from Yvelines 19th-century French novelists Viscounts of France French male novelists 19th-century French male writers