The French diplomatic historian Albert Sorel (1842-1906) was distinguished for his major work, Europe and the French Revolution, which influenced profoundly the interpretation of the French Revolution.

Albert Sorel was born to a wealthy industrial family of Honfleur. Although his father wanted him to join the family business, he showed from a very early age an interest in literature and history, and by the age of 18 he was publishing numerous poems in local journals. By 1863 Sorel published a series of articles in which he argued that a general history of France could not be written without previous histories of the villages and cities of the country, allowing the picture of the whole to be built up by a mosaic of parts. These interests were to appear later in his most famous work.

After finishing his studies, Sorel received his father's permission to seek work in Paris. With the...