SOURCE: "Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly," in French Profiles, revised edition, William Heinemann, 1913, pp. 87-102.

Gosse was an eminent man of letters during the late nineteenth century. In the following excerpt, he comments on Barbey 's stories and novels, concluding that Barbey was a "fervid, sumptuous, magnificently puerile" writer whose prospect of securing a prominent place in literature is "improbable. "

Those who can endure an excursion into the backwaters of literature may contemplate, neither too seriously nor too lengthily, the career and writings of Barbey d'Aurevilly. Very obscure in his youth, he lived so long, and preserved his force so consistently, that in his old age he became, if not quite a celebrity, most certainly a notoriety. At the close of his life—he reached his eighty-first year—he was still to be seen walking the streets or haunting the churches of Paris, his long, sparse hair flying in the...