Claude Fauriel

Claude Charles Fauriel (21 October 1772 – 15 July 1844) was a French historian, philologist and critic.

He was born at Saint-Étienne, Loire, the son of a poor joiner, but received a good education in the Oratorian colleges of Tournon and Lyon. He was twice in the army—at Perpignan in 1793, and in 1796-1797 at Briançon, as private secretary to General J Servan de Gerbey (1741–1808); but he preferred the civil service and the companionship of his friends and his books. In 1794 he returned to St Etienne, where, but only for a short period, he filled a municipal office; and from 1797 to 1799 he devoted himself to strenuous study, more especially of the literature and history, both ancient and modern, of Greece and Italy. Having paid a visit to Paris in 1799, he was introduced to Joseph Fouché, minister of police, whose private secretary he became. Though he discharged the duties of this office to Fouché's satisfaction, his strength was worn out by study, and in 1801 he was forced to take a three months' trip in the south. His health also resulted in his resigning his office in the following year, though his actions also had something to do with his scruples about serving longer under Napoleon, when the latter, in violation of his declared republican principles, became consul for life. This is clearly shown by the fragments of Mémoirs discovered by Ludovic Lalanne and published in 1886.

Some articles which Fauriel published in the Decade philosophique (1800) on a work of Madame de Staël's--De la littérature considerée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales—led to friendship with her. The salon of Mme de Condorcet was a rallying point for the dissentient republicans. Fauriel was introduced by Madame de Staël to the literary circle of Auteuil, which gathered round Antoine Destutt de Tracy. Those who enjoyed his closest intimacy were the physiologist Cabanis (Madame de Condorcet's brother-in-law), the poet Alessandro Manzoni, the publicist Benjamin Constant, and François Guizot. Later Destutt de Tracy introduced to him Augustin Thierry (1821) and perhaps Adolphe Thiers and François Mignet.

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