X. B. Saintine

X. B. Saintine
Wood engraving of Saintine
Born	Joseph Xavier Boniface (1798-07-10)10 July 1798 Paris, France
Died	21 January 1865(1865-01-21) (aged 66) Paris, France
Occupations	Playwright, novelist

Xavier Boniface Saintine (10 July 1798 – 21 January 1865) was a French dramatist and novelist.

Biography

He was born Joseph Xavier Boniface in Paris in 1798. In 1823, he produced a volume of poetry in the manner of the Romanticists, entitled Poèmes, odes, épîtres. In 1836, he wrote Picciola, a novel about the Count de Charney, a political prisoner in Piedmont, whose reason was saved by his cultivation of a tiny flower growing between the paving stones of his prison yard. This story is a masterpiece of the sentimental kind, and was translated into many European languages. The novel earned him renown^{[by whom?]} and came to be regarded as a classic of French literature.

He produced many other novels, and was a dramatist. He collaborated in more than 200 pieces with Eugène Scribe and others,^[who?] usually under the name of Xavier. He co-wrote the story which was to form the basis for Bellini's opera I puritani. He died in Paris in 1865.

Works

Saintine wrote more than 200 theatre plays and novels under the pen names Saintine, X.B. Saintine, Joseph Xavier Saintine, Xavier.

References

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Saintine, Joseph Xavier". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 9.

Further reading

• Clapin, A. C. (1883). "Preface", Picciola. Oxford University Press. Detailed biography of Saintine in the introduction to his most famous work.

External links

• Works by X. B. Saintine at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about X. B. Saintine at the Internet Archive