Philothée O'Neddy

NINETEENTH CENTURY Barbier (1805–82) struck a note of acerbic satire which, however, had few imitators. If Alphonse Esquiros (1812–76) maintained his political impetus, many ‘frantic’ and anarchist poets such as Pétrus Borel (1809–59) or Philothée O’Neddy (1811–75) soon generalized their adversarial stance and set about shocking France out of its growing complacency by renewing the old traditions of fantasy and the supernatural. Gautier By 1840, the retreat from Romantic excess was signalled