Claude Adhémar André Theuriet (French: [ɑ̃dʁe tøʁjɛ]; 8 October 1833 in Marly-le-Roi – 23 April 1907 in Bourg-la-Reine) was a 19th-century French poet and novelist.
Life
Theuriet was born at Marly-le-Roi (Seine et Oise), to a father from Burgundy and a mother from Lorraine. In 1838, his father was named receveur des domaines at Bar-le-Duc, and the whole family moved to Lorraine. His childhood was for the most part happy. André spent much of his time with his grandmother, who taught him to read. One of his great pleasures as a child was to go visit an eccentric great-aunt, who encouraged his gift for poetry. He would later take a special pleasure in evoking her garden in writing.
As a schoolboy, he was passionate for Hugo, Vigny, Musset and Lamartine. In 1858, striving to win the Académie française's prize in poetry, which that year was on the subject of the Acropolis, he plunged into the Greek classics, above all enjoying the Bucolics of Theocritus; this completed his poetic formation, although he did not win the prize, which was not awarded that year due to the insufficient quality of submissions.
Theuriet studied law in Paris and joined the public service, attaining the rank of chef de bureau, before his retirement during 1886. He would spend his Sundays off hiking through the countryside, taking inspiration from natural scenery. His breakout poem, published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, was In Memoriam. His first collection was the Chemin des bois, many of whose poems had been published already in the Revue des Deux Mondes in 1867; Le bleu et le noir, poèmes de la vie réelle (1874), Nos oiseaux (1886), and other volumes followed.
