Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804–1869) was a towering figure in nineteenth-century French literature, renowned primarily as a literary critic. Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, he initially studied medicine before turning his attention to literature. He became a key figure in the French Romantic movement, developing close relationships with prominent writers of the era, including Victor Hugo, though these relationships later cooled as his critical views evolved.\n\nSainte-Beuve is best remembered for developing a critical method that merged biography with literary analysis. He believed that a writer's work could not be fully understood without a deep examination of their personal life, character, and psychology. This biographical approach to criticism, while highly influential during his lifetime, later became a subject of significant debate, most notably drawing criticism from Marcel Proust in his essay Contre Sainte-Beuve, which argued that the creative self is distinct from the social self.\n\nThroughout his career, Sainte-Beuve contributed extensively to various periodicals, most notably writing regular columns that were later collected in his multi-volume works, such as Causeries du lundi (Monday Chats) and Nouveaux lundis. In addition to his criticism, he wrote poetry and a single semi-autobiographical novel, Volupté, as well as a monumental historical study of the Jansenist movement, Port-Royal, which remains a landmark of French literary history.