Curated playlist
19th-century French male writers
- Gustave FlaubertGustave Flaubert's first novel, Madame Bovary, put him on trial for immorality. He and his publisher were acquitted.
- Victor HugoVictor Hugo asked for a pauper's funeral and got the largest in French history.
- Alexandre DumasIn 2002, France moved Alexandre Dumas's ashes to the Pantheon, with guards dressed as the four Musketeers.
- Jules LequierPhilosopher Jules Lequier argued that the future does not yet exist for God to know.
- Pierre-Joseph ProudhonPierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first person known to call himself an anarchist, and many consider him the father of anarchism. He reached that title through the printing trade, having taught himself Latin so that he could print books in…
- Henri PoincaréHenri Poincaré won a royal prize for a problem he did not solve. His entry still revealed the first chaotic system.
- StendhalStendhal shaved every day during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. He also wrote under more than a hundred pseudonyms.
- Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis de Tocqueville was sent to America to study prisons. He went far beyond that and wrote a book on democracy.
- Jean-Baptiste SayNapoleon's government removed economist Jean-Baptiste Say from office in 1804. He then built a cotton mill instead.
- Jules MicheletHistorian Jules Michelet was the first to use "Renaissance" for a whole era.