Charles Félix Henri Rabou (6 September 1803 – 1 February 1871) was a 19th-century French writer, novelist and journalist.
Biography The son of a military sub-intendant, he studied at the collège Henri IV before attending law classes at the Faculty of Dijon. Back in Paris with his degree in law, he turned away from the bar in favor of literature. First a journalist for La Quotidienne, Le Messager des Chambres, Le Nouvelliste, le Journal de Paris, La Charte de 1830, he held political and literary chronicles, then in 1832 launched La Cour d'Assise, to be published until 1834.
Publication de Balzac Director of the prestigious Revue de Paris which he helped establish,Dictionnaire universel des contemporains de Gustave Vapereau (éd. de 1858,(p. 1423)) he befriended Honoré de Balzac whose novels he published in the pages of his paper. Mutual trust was such that Balzac entrusted him with the task to complete some unfinished novels after his death: (1854), (1855), (1855), (1856), a task Rabou performed honestly but that was coldly greeted by the critics.Dictionnaire historique des littératures Larousse,1985, tome II,
He was falsely accused of being Balzac's ghostwriter. Charles Rabou continued to produce great works of literature that deserve to be rediscovered.
Works Source:cf. Joseph-Marie Quérard, La France littéraire ou Dictionnaire bibliographique des savants, historiens et gens de lettres de la France, éd.Firmin Didot, 1857, (p. 628), extracts online
Collections 1832: (with Honoré de Balzac and Philarète Chasles): Sara la danseuse Tobias Guarnerius Les Regrets Le Ministère public
Novels 1831: Le Mannequin (1831) 1839: Les Tribulations et métamorphoses posthumes de maître Fabricius, peintre liégeois (reprinted in 1860) 1840: Louison d'Arquien 1842: Le Capitaine Lambert 1845: La Reine d'un jour 1846: Madame de Chaumergis digest online 1845: L'Allée des veuves 1849: Le Cabinet noir. Les Frères de la mort 1857: La Fille sanglante 1858: Le Marquis de Vulpiano 1860: Les Grands danseurs du Roi
Continuation of Balzac 1854: Scènes de la vie politique. Le Député d'Arcis 1854: Le Comte de Sallenauve 1855: La Famille Beauvisage 1855: Les Petits bourgeois, scènes de la vie parisienne
Historical essay 1860: La Grande Armée
Bibliography Charles Rabou on wikisource Jacques Goimard et Roland Stragliati (éds.), Histoires de fantômes, éd. Presses Pocket, 1977 Jacques Goimard et Roland Stragliati (éds.), La Grande Anthologie du fantastique, t.2, éd. Omnibus, 1996 Florian Balduc (éd.),Fantaisies Hoffmaniennes, Editions Otrante, 2016
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