Leconte de Lisle

Raised in the tropical lushness of Réunion Island and educated in law at Rennes, Leconte de Lisle settled in Paris, participating in the 1848 Revolution. Disillusioned by democratic failures, he rejected romantic sentimentality in favor of impassioned stoicism and immaculate formal perfection.

As intellectual chieftain of the Parnasse movement, he published Poèmes antiques (1852) and Poèmes barbares (1862), drawing on Greek mythology, Norse sagas, and Hindu epics. In 1886, he succeeded Victor Hugo at the Académie Française, serving as mentor to Heredia and Mallarmé.