Xavier Boniface Saintine (10 July 1798 – 21 January 1865) was a
French dramatist and novelist.
Biography
He was born Joseph Xavier Boniface in Paris in 1798. In 1823, he produced a volume of poetry in the manner of the
Romanticists, entitled Poèmes, odes, épîtres. In 1836 appeared Picciola, a novel about the Count de Charney, a political prisoner in
Piedmont, whose reason was saved by his cultivation of a tiny flower growing between the paving stones of his prison yard. This story is a masterpiece of the sentimental kind, and has been translated into many European languages.[1] The novel earned him renown and came to be regarded as a classic of French literature.[2]
He produced many other novels, none of striking individuality with the exception of Seul (
1857), which purported to be the authentic record of
Alexander Selkirk on his desert island. Saintine was a prolific dramatist, and collaborated in more than 200 pieces with
Eugène Scribe and others, usually under the name of Xavier. He co-wrote the story which was to form the basis for
Bellini's
operaI puritani. He died in Paris in 1865.[1][2]
Selected works
A very prolific author, he wrote more than 200 theatre plays and novels under the
pen namesSaintine, X.B. Saintine, Joseph Xavier Saintine, Xavier.
Books
Poëmes, odes, épitres. (1823)
Jonathan le Visionnaire, contes philosophiques et moraux.[1](1825)
Histoire des Guerres d'Italie, Campagne des Alpes. (1826)
Histoire de la Civilisation antédiluvienne. (1830)
Le Chemin des écoliers (1861) including an illustrated edition with 450 vignettes by
Gustave Doré, grand in-8, broché.
[12]
Contes de toutes les couleurs : Léonard le cocher, etc.[13] (1862)
La Mythologie du Rhin[14] ;(1862) including an edition illustrated by
Gustave Doré, grand in-8, broché.
La Mère Gigogne et ses trois filles : La nature et ses trois règnes ; causeries et contes d'un bon papa sur l'histoire naturelle et les objets les plus usuels (1863), grand in-8, illustrated with 171 vignettes by Foulquier and Faguet, broché.
[15]
^
abThe Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, 11th ed.
^
abGarnett, Richard, ed. (1899). The International Library of Famous Literature: Selections from the World's Great Writers Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, with Biographical and Explanatory Notes and Critical Essays by Many Eminent Writers, Vol. X. London: The Standard, p. 4732.