Hippolyte Taine facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Hippolyte Taine
Portrait of Hippolyte Taine by Léon Bonnat.
Born	Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-04-21)21 April 1828 Vouziers, France
Died	5 March 1893(1893-03-05) (aged 64) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Alma mater	École Normale Supérieure
Scientific career
Influences	Livy La Fontaine Burke Herder Germaine
Influenced	Bourget Chmielowski Cobban France Koneczny Kuehnelt-Leddihn Krzywicki Le Bon Maupassant Maurras Mosca Prus Sorel Unamuno (early) Zola
Signature

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (born April 21, 1828 – died March 5, 1893) was an important French thinker. He was a historian, a critic, and a philosopher. He greatly influenced a style of writing called French naturalism. He also supported sociological positivism, which is a way of studying society using scientific methods.

Taine was one of the first people to use "historicist criticism." This means he looked at how history and the time period influenced literature. He also tried to explain literature in a scientific way. His ideas had a big impact on French writers like Émile Zola, Paul Bourget, and Guy de Maupassant.

Early Life and Education

Hippolyte Taine was born in Vouziers, France. His family was quite well-off. His father, a lawyer, along with his uncle and grandfather, encouraged him to read many different books. They also gave him art and music lessons.

When Taine was 13, his father passed away. He then went to a boarding school in Paris. He was a very good student. In 1847, he earned two degrees called Baccalauréat (in Science and Philosophy). He also won an honorary prize.

In 1848, he was accepted into a top school called the École Normale Supérieure. He was known for being very independent in his thinking. Because of this, he didn't pass a special exam in philosophy in 1851. After this, he decided to focus on literature instead of social sciences.

He taught in different towns like Nevers and Poitiers. In 1853, he earned a doctorate degree from the Sorbonne, a famous university. His main paper was about the fables of La Fontaine. He also won a prize from the Académie française in 1854 for his essay on the Roman historian Livy.

Taine became interested in new ideas that used science and facts to understand the world. These ideas are known as positivism.

Travels and Major Works

After getting his doctorate, Taine moved back to Paris. He even studied medicine for a short time. In 1855, he traveled to the Pyrénées mountains for his health. He later wrote a famous book about his trip called Voyage aux Pyrénées. He also started writing many articles for important newspapers.

He then visited England for six weeks. In 1863, he published his major work, History of English Literature, which was five volumes long. This book was very successful.

In 1868, he married Thérèse Denuelle and they had two children.

Because his books were so popular, Taine was able to make a living from his writing. He also became a professor of Art History and Aesthetics at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He taught history and German at another military school. He even taught at Oxford University in England in 1871. In 1878, he became a member of the French Academy, which is a very high honor.

Taine was interested in many topics, especially history. He was deeply affected by France's defeat in the war of 1870. He was also troubled by the events of the Paris Commune, a period of unrest in Paris. These events made him focus on his most important historical work, The Origins of Contemporary France.

This large, six-volume work tried to understand how modern France came to be. Taine looked at the causes of the French Revolution from a long-term perspective. He believed that some of the ideas of the Revolution were too abstract and didn't fit with how a country's institutions naturally grow. He worked on this project until he died.

Taine passed away on March 5, 1893. He was buried near Lake Annecy, a beautiful place where he used to spend his summers.

Taine's Ideas and Impact

Taine's writings about the French Revolution are still popular in France. He believed that the Revolution's ideas were not always honest. He argued that the Jacobins, a powerful group during the Revolution, made the government even more centralized than before. Taine preferred ideas of regionalism and individual freedom.

His ideas also influenced how people thought about social policies in France. However, Taine's views were complex and sometimes criticized by different groups. Some historians disagreed with his ideas about crowds and how he viewed the Jacobins.

Despite some disagreements, many facts and examples Taine used in his historical work were found to be correct by other historians.

In his other writings, Taine tried to explain literature in a scientific way. He thought that a piece of literature was a result of the author's surroundings and time period. He believed that if you understood the author's "nation," "environment," and "time," you could fully understand their work. This was different from the idea that literature was just a sudden creation of a brilliant mind.

Some critics, like Émile Zola, admired Taine but felt he didn't focus enough on the unique personality of the artist. Zola argued that an artist's own feelings and style could lead to unique choices, even if their environment shaped them.

Influence on Others

Taine had a big impact on French writers and thinkers. He had a special connection with Émile Zola. Zola's writing often showed how Taine's ideas about feelings and imagination shaped the mind. The Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno was also very interested in Taine's work early on.

Writers like Paul Bourget and Guy de Maupassant were also greatly influenced by Taine.

Taine even exchanged letters with the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche later called Taine "the first of living historians." Taine's work was also the subject of a doctoral paper by Stefan Zweig.

Works

See also

In Spanish: Hippolyte Taine para niños

• Bolesław Prus
• Piotr Chmielowski
• Thomas Blackwell