biography
| name: |
Musset, (Louis Charles) Alfred de
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pronunciation:
[müsay]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1810–57)
|
| biography:
| Poet and playwright, born in Paris, France. After studying first the law, then medicine, he published his first collection of poems, Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie (1829, Tales of Spain and Italy). This won the approval of Victor Hugo, who accepted him into his Cénacle, the inner shrine of militant Romanticism, even though Musset had already begun to poke gentle fun at the movement. His first excursion into drama failed, and from then on he conceived an ‘armchair theatre’ with plays intended for reading only. In 1833 Musset met George Sand, and there began the stormy love affair which, according to his autobiographical poem La Confession d'un enfant du siècle (1835, The Confession of a Child of the Age), coloured much of his work after that date. His Nuits (1835–7, Nights), trace the emotional upheaval of his love for George Sand from despair to final resignation. |
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