Born of noble parentage on December 11, 1810—­his full name being Louis Charles Alfred de Musset—­the son of De Musset-Pathai, he received his education at the College Henri IV, where, among others, the Duke of Orleans was his schoolmate.  When only eighteen he was introduced into the Romantic ‘cenacle’ at Nodier’s.  His first work, ’Les Contes d’Espagne et d’Italie’ (1829), shows reckless daring in the choice of subjects quite in the spirit of Le Sage, with a dash of the dandified impertinence that mocked the foibles of the old Romanticists.  However, he presently abandoned this style for the more subjective strain of ’Les Voeux Steyiles, Octave, Les Secretes Pensees de Rafael, Namouna, and Rolla’, the last two being very eloquent at times, though immature.  Rolla (1833) is one of the strongest and most depressing of his works; the sceptic regrets the faith he has lost the power to regain, and realizes in lurid flashes the desolate emptiness of his own heart.  At this period the crisis of his life was reached.  He accompanied George Sand to Italy, a rupture between them occurred, and De Musset returned to Paris alone in 1834.

More subdued sadness is found in ‘Les Nuits’ (1832-1837), and in ’Espoir en Dieu’ (1838), etc., and his ‘Lettre a Lamartine’ belongs to the most beautiful pages of French literature.  But henceforth his production grows more sparing and in form less romantic, although ‘Le Rhin Allemand’, for example, shows that at times he can still gather up all his powers.  The poet becomes lazy and morose, his will is sapped by a wild and reckless life, and one is more than once tempted to wish that his lyre had ceased to sing.

De Musset’s prose is more abundant than his lyrics or his dramas.  It is of immense value, and owes its chief significance to the clearness with which it exhibits the progress of his ethical disintegration.  In ’Emmeline (1837) we have a rather dangerous juggling with the psychology of love.  Then follows a study of simultaneous love, ‘Les Deux Mattresses’ (1838), quite in the spirit of Jean Paul.  He then wrote three sympathetic depictions of Parisian Bohemia:  ’Frederic et Bernadette, Mimi Pinson, and Le Secret de Javotte’, all in 1838.  ’Le Fils de Titien (1838) and Croiselles’ (1839) are carefully elaborated historical novelettes; the latter is considered one of his best works, overflowing with romantic spirit, and contrasting in this respect strangely with ‘La Mouche’ (1853), one of the last flickerings of his imagination.  ‘Maggot’ (1838) bears marks of the influence of George Sand; ‘Le Merle Blanc’ (1842) is a sort of allegory dealing with their quarrel.  ‘Pierre et Camille’ is a pretty but slight tale of a deaf-mute’s love.  His greatest work, ‘Confession d’un Enfant du Siecle’, crowned with acclaim by the French Academy, and classic for all time, was written in 1836, when the poet, somewhat recovered from the shock, relates his unhappy Italian experience.  It is an ambitious and deeply interesting work, and shows whither his dread of all moral compulsion and self-control was leading him.