Although François Coppée's literary success during his lifetime was considerable, he has subsequently been largely forgotten, his verse little more than a footnote to the history of French literature. Paradoxically, if history's relegation of his fortunes implies that Coppée is marginal to the main corpus of French poetry, in the nineteenth century Coppée owed his fame to being thrust unexpectedly into the literary limelight. Indeed, his career exemplifies the ambivalence of such fame, which was for him a continual exercise in establishing artistic credentials both against and in conformity with orthodox taste. Public approval earned Coppée a respectable wage and the dignity of membership in the Académie Française. He somewhat played the role of an unofficial poet laureate, composing verse to commemorate significant events. One commentator remarked that he was the kind of poet...