Theophile Gautier

The life of Théophile Gautier is of peculiar interest to men of letters, especially to that large proportion of them who, like Théophile, are "polygraphes." Our ancestors more briefly termed them "hacks," and, since Dr. Johnson, or, at least, since Southey, there has been no hack so distinguished as Théophile. His Pegasus was early broken into harness, and his biographer, Maxime du Camp, like himself, is constantly regretting this bondage. Gautier's biography and his confessions prove that he was a born student. He had the love of printed matter, he had a memory - as proved by his recital of a long poem of Hugo's only once read, which rivalled that of Scott.