Henry Houssaye

Who was Henry Houssaye?

Henry Houssaye, was a French historian and academician.

He was born in Paris, the son of the novelist Arsène Houssaye. His early writings were devoted to classical antiquity, his knowledge drawn partly from visits to the actual Greek sites in 1868. He published successively Histoire d’Apelles, a study on Greek art; L'Armée dans la Grèce antique; Histoire d’Alcibiade et de la République athénienne, depuis la mort de Périclès jusqu’à l’avènement des trente tyrans; Papers on Le Nombre des citoyens d'Athènes au Vème siècle avant l’ère chrétienne; La Loi agraire à Sparte; Le premier siège de Paris, an 52 avant l’ère chrétienne; and two volumes of miscellanies, Athènes, Rome, Paris, l'histoire et les mœurs, and Aspasie, Cléopâtre, Théodora.

The military history of Napoleon I then attracted him. His first volume on this subject, called 1814, went through no fewer than forty-six editions. It was followed by 1815, the first part of which comprises the first Restoration, the return from Elba and the Hundred Days; the second part, Waterloo; and the third part, the second abdication and the White Terror. He was elected a member of the Académie française in 1895.