Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre | |
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| Born | Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-01-19)19 January 1737 |
| Died | 21 January 1814(1814-01-21) (aged 77) Éragny,Seine-et-Oise, France |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | French |
| Period | 18th century |
| Genre | Novel, travel narrative |
| Notable works | Paul et Virginie |
Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (pronounced[ʒakɑ̃ʁibɛʁnaʁdɛ̃dəsɛ̃pjɛʁ]; also calledBernardin de St. Pierre) (19 January 1737, inLe Havre – 21 January 1814, inÉragny,Val-d'Oise) was a French writer andbotanist. He is best known for his 1788 novel,Paul et Virginie, a very popular 18th-century classic ofFrench literature.[1]
At the age of twelve he had readRobinson Crusoe and went with his uncle, a skipper, to the West-Indies. After returning from this trip he was educated as an engineer at theÉcole des Ponts. Then he joined the French Army and was involved in theSeven Years' War against Prussia and England, but was dismissed for insubordination. After travels around Europe he returned to Paris in 1765.[2]
He received a small inheritance on his father's death,[2] and in 1768 he traveled toMauritius where he served as engineer and studied plants.[1] On his return in 1771 he became friendly with and a pupil ofJean-Jacques Rousseau. Together they studied the plants in and around Paris, and Rousseau helped form his character and style.[2]
HisVoyage à l'Île de France (2 vols., 1773) gained him a reputation as a champion of innocence and religion, and in consequence, through the exertions of thebishop of Aix, a pension of 1000 livres a year. TheÉtudes de la nature (3 vols., 1784) was an attempt to prove the existence of God from the wonders of nature; he set up a philosophy of sentiment to oppose the materializing tendencies of theEncyclopaedists. His masterpiece,Paul et Virginie, appeared in 1789 in a supplementary volume of theÉtudes, and his second great success, less sentimental and showing some humour, theChaumière indienne, not until 1790.[2]
In 1795 he was elected to theInstitut de France,[2]in 1797 became manager of theBotanical Gardens (Jardin des plantes) in Paris and in 1803 was elected a member of theAcadémie française.
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Saint-Pierre was an avid advocate and practitioner ofvegetarianism, and although he was a devout Christian was also heavily influenced byEnlightenment-era intellectuals likeVoltaire and his mentorRousseau.[3][4]
In 1792 he married a very young girl, Félicité Didot, who brought him a considerabledowry. After his first wife's death he married in 1800, when he was sixty-three, another young girl, Desirée Pelleport.[2]
Alexander von Humboldt, next toCharles Darwin the best known naturalist of the nineteenth century, belonged to the admirers of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and cherished the novelPaul et Virginie.[6]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri Bernardin de".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 41.
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