Paul Armand Silvestre

Who was Paul Armand Silvestre?

Paul-Armand Silvestre, French poet and conteur, was born in Paris.

He studied at the École polytechnique with the intention of entering the army, but in 1870 he entered the department of finance. He had a successful official career, was decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1886, and in 1892 was made inspector of fine arts. Armand Silvestre made his entry into literature as a poet, and was reckoned among the Parnassians.

His volumes of verse include:

Rimes neuves et vieilles, to which George Sand wrote a preface

Les Renaissances

La Chanson des heures

Le Chemin des étoiles, etc.

The poet was also a contributor to Gil Blas and other Parisian journals, distinguishing himself by the licence he permitted himself. To these "absences" from poetry, as Henri Chantavoine calls them, belong the seven volumes of La Vie pour rire, Contes pantagruéliques et galants, Le Livre des joyeusetés, Gauloiseries nouvelles, &c.

For the stage he wrote in many different manners:

Sapho, a drama

Henry VIII, with Léonce Detroyat, music by Saint-Saëns; and the Drames sacres, religious pictures after 14th- and 15th-century Italian painters, with music by Gounod.