French Literature Reviews - 2026

Sainte-Beuve, Le Cahier brun (1847-1868)
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Bibliographic reference: Sainte-Beuve, Le Cahier brun (1847-1868), 2019.

Bibliographic reference: Sainte-Beuve, Le Cahier brun (1847-1868), 2017.

Charles-Augustin SAINTE-BEUVE
Le Cahier brun (1847-1868)
Supplemented by notes inserted in the second notebook (1867-1868) Third notebook (1869)
Edited by Patrick LABARTHE, with Bénédicte ELIE
Geneva, Droz, Histoire des Idées et Critique Littéraire — 46.10 CHF TTC — EAN 9782600047418 — 540 p.

The Cahier brun (Brown Notebook), or Second Notebook, which complements the Cahier vert (1834-1847) published in 1976 by Raphaël Molho, is a collection of "Observations and Thoughts" spanning from September 1847 to December 1868. The manuscript, housed in the Library of the Institut de France, is transcribed here in full for the first time. Written spontaneously as thoughts and moods arose, these reflections offer readers an entry into the writer's mental laboratory. They feature a miscellaneous mix of maxims in the purest moralist tradition, portrait sketches, conversations and anecdotes capped with a sharp or skeptical wit, and consistently—hovering between moral and literary waters—a stripping bare of the excesses of imagination and vanity. A literary chronicle, the Cahier brun is equally a political chronicle, parading the grand figures of the century, journal editors, political chameleons—in short, the entire menagerie of Parisian politics, literature, and journalism. Finally, this notebook serves as a library, accompanying Sainte-Beuve through numerous reading experiences, where the urge for stock-taking continually asserts itself at the rhythm of a relentlessly restless mind eager to tear off masks, even if it means ending up disillusioned with oneself and everyone else. This edition is completed by two other previously unpublished texts: a series of 116 loose sheets that Sainte-Beuve intended to insert into the Cahier brun, as well as a "third notebook" consisting of 13 sheets corresponding to the writer's final weeks.

Professor of French Literature at the University of Zurich, Patrick Labarthe has published Baudelaire et la tradition de l'allégorie with Droz (1999, reissued in the "Titre courant" series in 2015 with a preface by Yves Bonnefoy).

Contents:

Preface: Interior Furnishings

Note on the Establishment of the Text

Sigla and Abbreviations

Le Cahier brun (1847-1868)

Illustrations

Appendices
Appendix I: Ms. Lov. D 574. Observations and thoughts of Sainte-Beuve. Second Notebook. Notes on loose sheets inserted by Sainte-Beuve into this Notebook (28 September 1847-1868)
Appendix II: Ms. Lov. D 575. Observations and thoughts of Sainte-Beuve. Third Notebook (1869)

Index Nominum
Index of Reviews and Works

This volume presents the full transcription of Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve's Le Cahier brun, spanning the years from 1847 to 1868. Supplemented by loose sheets and a third notebook covering the writer's final weeks, the manuscript housed in the Library of the Institut de France is edited by Patrick Labarthe with Bénédicte Elie. The collection gathers spontaneous observations, thoughts, maxims in the moralist tradition, portrait sketches, conversations, and anecdotes, functioning simultaneously as a literary chronicle, a political chronicle, and a personal library of reading experiences.

Within the broader tradition of nineteenth-century French personal notebooks and journals, such private writings offer direct insight into the intellectual formation and private judgments of prominent critics and authors. Readers interested in nineteenth-century French literature, intellectual history, and the Parisian literary milieu of the period may find this critical edition relevant to their studies. The volume includes comprehensive scholarly apparatus, appendices, and indices to assist researchers navigating the manuscript material.