Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Léon Gozlan

GOZLAN, Léon, a French novelist and play writer, was born at Marseilles in 1803, and died in 1866. When he was still a boy, his father, who had made a large fortune as a ship-broker, met with adverse circumstances, and Le"on, before completing his education, had to go to sea in order to earn a living. He went several trading voyages to Algiers and to Senegal, without, it would seem, much profit. In the meantime his literary tastes gradually developed, and he abandoned mercantile pursuits for the modest employ ment of a teacher in Marseilles. He, however, did not remain long there, and in 1828 we find him in Paris, de termined to run the risks of literary life. His townsman, Joseph Mery, who was then making himself famous by his political satires, smoothed his way, and introduced him to several newspapers. But Gozlan did not sacrifice litera ture to politics. Though he contributed many essays to the reviews, it is as a fertile and ingenious author of novels and plays that he is best known. His first novel was Les Memoires d uii Apothicaire (1828), and this was followed by numberless others, among which may be men tioned Le Notaire de Chantiliy, Aristide Froissart (one of the most curious and celebrated of his productions), Les Nuits du Perti-Lackaise, Le Tapis Vert; Georges III., La Folle du lugis, La famille Lambert, Les Emotions de Polydore Marasqum, ifcc. His principal works for the theatre are La Goutte de Lait, La Plule et le beau temps, LeLion empaille, Pied-de-Fer, Louise de Nanteuil, Le, Gateau des Eeines, Les Paniers de la Comtesse, Le Diamant et le Verre, arid adaptations of several of his own novels to the stage. Gozlan also wrote a romantic and picturesque description of the old manors and mansions of his country, entitled Les Chateaux de France, 4 vols. (1844), and a biographical essay on the great novelist Balzac (1861). He was made a member of the legion of honour in 1846, and in 1859 an officer of that order. Louid Huart has published a sketch of his life. Of the many novels which uninterruptedly dropped, as it were, from Gozlan s pen during a period of thirty-eight years, very few have the qualities which commend a work of fiction to posterity ; but nearly all are pleasant to read, and some will no doubt survive as an interesting and lively picture of French manners during the first half of this century. He holds an honourable place in the second rank of French novelists.