“ NODIER, CHARLES (1780-1844) , French author, was born on the 29th of April 1780 at Besançon. His father, on the outbreak of the Revolution, was appointed mayor of Besançon and consequently chief police magistrate; he seems to have rather lent himself as an instrument to the tyranny of the Jacobins than to have shared their principles; but his son was for a time an ardent citizen, and is said to have been a club member when he could at the most have been twelve years old. ”

“ But he had the advantage of a settled home in which to collect and study rare books; and he was able to supply a centre and rallying place to a knot of young literary men of greater individual talent than himself—the so-called Romanticists of 1830—and to colour their tastes and work very decidedly with his own predilections. ”

“ The hero, Charles, who is a variation of the Werther type, desires the restoration of the monasteries, to afford a refuge from the woes of the world. In 1811 Nodier appears at Laibach as editor of a polyglot journal, the Illyrian Telegraph, published in French, German, Italian and Slav. ”