SOURCE: Gamble, D. R. “Alfred de Musset and the Uses of Experience.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 18, nos. 1-2 (fall-winter 1989-90): 78-84.

In the following essay, Gamble discusses Musset's artistic application of life experience to his literary works.

“Alfred de Musset, féminin et sans doctrine, aurait pu exister dans tous les temps et n'eût jamais été qu'un paresseux à effusions gracieuses. …”¹ No one, of course, can be right all the time, and Charles Baudelaire was no exception: originally offered in his essay on Gautier of 1859, this embarrassing estimation of the character and contribution of Musset has since been successfully challenged by the studies of a number of scholars and literary critics. It is true that Musset disliked prefaces and literary manifestoes and so wrote very few; his attitude to theory and theoretical discussion in general is best revealed in the remarks he made in a letter to his brother...