Le Constitutionnel
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
political and literary newspaper, founded in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
during the Hundred Days
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
by Joseph Fouché
Joseph Fouché
Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante was a French statesman and Minister of Police under Napoleon Bonaparte. In English texts his title is often translated as Duke of Otranto.-Youth:Fouché was born in Le Pellerin, a small village near Nantes...
. Originally established in October 1815 as The Independent, it took its current name during the Second Restoration. A voice for Liberals, Bonapartist
Bonapartist
In French political history, Bonapartism has two meanings. In a strict sense, this term refers to people who aimed to restore the French Empire under the House of Bonaparte, the Corsican family of Napoleon Bonaparte and his nephew Louis...
s, and critics of the church, it was suppressed five times, reappearing each time under a new name. Its primary contributors were Antoine Jay
Antoine Jay
Antoine Jay was a French writer, journalist, historian and politician.-Life:At first an Oratorian at Niort, he studied law at Toulouse and became a lawyer, then briefly administrator of the district of Libourne...
, Évariste Dumoulin, Adolphe Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...
, Louis François Auguste Cauchois-Lemaire, as well as Alexander Chevassut and his son Nicole Robinet de La Serve
Nicole Robinet de La Serve
Jean-Pierre-François Nicole Robinet de La Serve was a French journalist, lawyer and politician.-Biography:...
.
During the 19th century, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an monarchs were wary of the press and often suppressed it because they believed it could spark popular uprisings. Newspapers which covered national news were rare and read by few, especially since Germany and Italy were not yet nation-states. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
, "the first signs of a popular press" appeared in Continental Europe with La Presse
La Presse (France)
-Overview:La Presse was founded on 16 June 1836 by Émile de Girardin as a popular conservative enterprise. While contemporary newspapers depended heavily on subscription and tight party affiliation, La Presse was sold by street vendors. Girardin wanted the paper to support the government, without...
in 1836, founded by Émile de Girardin
Émile de Girardin
Émile de Girardin , was a French journalist, publicist, and politician. He was born in Paris in 1802, the son of General Alexandre de Girardin and of Madame Dupuy , wife of a Parisian advocate....
. At the same time, Louis Véron founded the Revue de Paris
Revue de Paris
Revue de Paris was a French literary magazine founded in 1829 by Louis Desiré Veron....
in 1829 and revived Le Constitutionnel in 1835. In 1848, it played a key role in the election of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
Louis Napoleon may refer to:* Louis Bonaparte or Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, , King Louis I of Holland, brother of Napoleon I* Napoléon Louis Bonaparte , King Louis II of Holland, second son of Louis Bonaparte...
and was a major government newspaper of the Second French Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
.
Véron asked Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a literary critic and one of the major figures of French literary history.-Early years:...
to write a weekly column on current literary topics. Sainte-Beuve called the now-famous collection Causeries du lundi ("Monday Chats"). His essays appeared in Le Constitutionnel from October 1849 to November 1852 and from September 1861 to January 1867 as well as in other papers. They were ruminations on authors and their works, with an emphasis on French literature. Sainte-Beuve's reputation as one of the most important French literary critics of the day rested on these columns, in which he guided the literary tastes of the populace. Like other papers at the time, Le Constitutionnel had a "literary slant", which covered up their lack of national news, a slant, which according to Britannica, "persists to some degree in the modern era" in French newspapers.
In 1862, Jules Mirès purchased the newspaper as its quality was worsening. Beginning in 1880, it saw a real decline and ceased publication in 1914.
Under the editorship of Louis Véron, from 1844 to 1862, the following works were published serially:
- Jeanne by George SandGeorge SandAmantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
- Le Juif errantLe Juif Errant-Publication:Le Juif errant was a serially published novel, which attained great popularity in Paris, and beyond. According to historian John McGreevy, the novel was intensely and deliberately "anti-Catholic." Its publication, and that of its predecessor Les Mystères de Paris, greatly increased...
by Eugène SueEugène SueJoseph Marie Eugène Sue was a French novelist.He was born in Paris, the son of a distinguished surgeon in Napoleon's army, and is said to have had the Empress Joséphine for godmother. Sue himself acted as surgeon both in the Spanish campaign undertaken by France in 1823 and at the Battle of Navarino... - L’Allée des veuves et Les Grands Danseurs du Roi by Charles Rabou
- Le Cabinet des AntiquesLe Cabinet des AntiquesLe Cabinet des Antiques is a French novel published by Honoré de Balzac in 1838 under the title les Rivalités en province in le Constitutionnel, then published as a work in its own right in 1838 by the Souverain publishing house.With la Vieille Fille, the work fits into les Rivalités, an...
(under the title les Rivalités de Province) by BalzacHonoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
in 1838 - La Cousine BetteLa Cousine BetteLa Cousine Bette |Bette]]) is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and...
by Balzac in 1846 - Le Cousin PonsLe Cousin PonsLe Cousin Pons is virtually the last of the 94 works of Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie humaine, which are in both novel and short story form. Begun in 1846 as a novella, or long-short story, it was envisaged as one part of a diptych, Les Parents pauvres , the other part of which was La Cousine Bette...
by Balzac in 1847 - Le Colonel ChabertLe Colonel Chabert (novel)Le Colonel Chabert is an 1832 novella by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac . It is included in his series of novels known as La Comédie humaine , which depicts and parodies French society in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy...
by Balzac in 1847 - Le Député d'Arcis by Balzac in 1852
- Renée de Varville by Virginie Ancelot
- The novels of Alexandre Dumas, Prosper MériméeProsper MériméeProsper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
, and Alfred de MussetAlfred de MussetAlfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
External links
- Le Constitutionnel digitized issues from 1819 to 1914 in Gallica, the digital library of the BnFBNFBNF may stand for:In science:*Biological nitrogen fixation, a process that converts nitrogen in the atmosphere to ammonia*British National Formulary, the standard drug reference manual**British National Formulary for Children...
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