Charles de Chênedollé's life encompasses the period from the end of the life of Louis XV to the beginning of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe. For Chênedollé and his parents, the momentous events of the French Revolution and its aftermath brought tremendous upheaval into their lives. As a ci-devant (an aristocrat who was divested of his privileges in the Revolution), his father was stripped of his possessions, imprisoned twice, and financially impoverished, while Chênedollé lived for almost eight years in exile. Emigration reinforced his ultraroyalist and Catholic leanings, to which he gave expression in his poetry. The effect of the Revolution was also played out in the strengthening through nostalgia and the longing induced by exile of the bonds that linked Chênedollé as a poète du terroir (poet of the land) to his...