Ferdinand Fabre

Ferdinand Simon Fabre (9 June 1827 – 11 February 1898) was a French novelist whose novels depict the life of the peasants and clergy of his native region, the upper valley of the river Orb, in the département of Hérault.

Biography

Ferdinand Fabre was born in Bédarieux in the upper valley of the Orb, in the department of Hérault, the setting for his novels. Under the influence of his mother, he entered a small seminary at Saint-Pons-de-Thomières and, in 1847, a larger seminary at Montpellier. He was brought up by his uncle, the Abbé Fulcran Fabre, at Camplong, and he gave an account of his childhood and early youth in Ma Vocation. His experiences in the ecclesiastical milieux provide one of the main themes of his novels.

In 1848, before taking his final vows, he experienced an ecstatic vision of Christ, who warned him "It is not the will of God that you should be a priest." He abandoned his priestly vocation and briefly studied medicine at Montpellier. He then went to Paris and was articled as a clerk to a lawyer. In 1853 he published a volume of verses, Feuilles de lierre, but after a breakdown in health he returned to his old home at Bédarieux. After some eight or nine years of country life he reappeared in Paris with the manuscript of his first novel, Les Courbezon.

In 1861, shortly after his marriage, he became the Inspecteur de la Librarie Étrangère at the customs house in Calais. He eventually left his civil service position and devoted himself entirely to literary work, moving to Paris where his social circle included many writers and artists. Among his closest friends was the writer Hector Malot; Fabre was also a close friend of the painter Jean-Paul Laurens, whose biography he wrote. By the time of his death he had published about 20 novels, many of which dealt with the daily business of country priests in the Cévennes. Although he never became a priest, he maintained an understanding of, and a sympathy with, the clerical character, and he always denied that he was hostile to the Church.