Louis Ulbach

{{Short description|French novelist, essayist and journalist (1822–1889)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Louis Ulbach | image = Ulbach, Louis, dit Ferragus, BNF Gallica.jpg | alt =  | caption = Louis Ulbach, ca. 1865 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1822|3|7|df=y}} | birth_place = Troyes, Aube, France | death_date = {{Death date and age|1889|4|16|1822|3|7|df=y}} | death_place = Paris, France | other_names = | occupation = Author, editor, and publisher | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Louis Ulbach''' (7 March 1822{{snd}}16 April 1889) was a French novelist, essayist and journalist.<ref name="DN - obit">{{Cite news |date=April 18, 1889 |title=The Late M. Ulbach |page=5 |work=Daily News | location=London, England |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82892362/the-late-m-ulbach/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref> He published seventy-six volumes, wrote three plays, and wrote numerous articles and political or biographical pamphlets.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jvxyFSdyW24C&pg=PA286 |title=Nouvelle revue de Champagne et de Brie |date=1889 |publisher=Revue de Champagne et de Brie |pages=286 |language=fr}}</ref> His romantic novels were compared to the works of Émile Zola and Alphonse Daudet.

He edited the ''Revue de Paris'' and published ''La Cloche'', which was suppressed in 1869 for its hostility to the Second French Empire. He was imprisoned twice for his publication of ''La Cloche''. He was a leader in the movement for perpetual copyright to authors.

In 1877, he was awarded the cross of the Legion of Honour.<ref name="De Puy" />

==Personal life== Ulbach was born at Troyes in the department of Aube.<ref name="EB1911" /> He was described as a genial, intelligent, witty, and interesting man who was a notable conversationalist.<ref name="DN - obit" /> He was a member of Jules Simon's salon with Edmond François Valentin About and other Frenchmen to discuss literary, political, and other current events. He was a popular leader within literary circles.<ref name="DN - obit" />

When Elisabeth of Wied, the Queen of Romania, was a girl, Ulbrach was said to have been her literary professor in Paris.<ref name="DN - obit" /> Louis Ulbach was credited with "introducing the world to the pleasant pretty book of the Queen of Romania, the 'Pensees d'une Reine'."<ref name="Literary Lights" /> He was presented to the Queen at summer residence when he traveled to Sinaia in Romania. Upon seeing her works that were written in French, he encouraged her to publish a selection.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 20, 1889 |title=Death of Louis Ulbach |pages=6 |work=The Pall Mall Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82898059/death-of-louis-ulbach/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref>

He died in Paris on 16 April 1889,<ref name="EB1911"/> after a long illness.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 17, 1889 |title=Louis Ulbach, the Novelist, Dead |pages=1 |work=Buffalo Morning Express and Illustrated Buffalo Express |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82892005/louis-ulbach-the-novelist-dead/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref>

==Career and politics== He was encouraged to take up a literary career by Victor Hugo.<ref name="EB1911" /> When he was 22, Ulbach published a volume of poetry entitled ''Gloriana''.<ref name="De Puy" /> After he graduated from college in 1845, he founded the ''La Revue des Famillies'' publication at Troyes. He moved to Paris in 1848 and saw the French Revolution of 1848. He took rank among the Republicans, and opposed the Empire as a Liberal.<ref name="DN - obit" />

He wrote a long series of novels and dramas of the French school of sensationalism.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 20, 1889 |title=Obituary – Louis Ulbach |pages=4 |work=The Inquirer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82898852/obituary-louis-ulbach/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref> His romance novels were compared to the works of Émile Zola and Alphonse Daudet.<ref name="New Book" /> Among his works are: ''Voyage autour de mon clocher'' (1864), ''Nos contemporains'' (1869–1871), ''Le Sacrifice of Aurélie'' (1873), ''Lettres d’une Honte Femme'' (written under the name Madeleine, 1873), ''La Ronde de Nuit'' (1874), ''Aventures de trois grandes dames de la cour de Vienne'' (3 vols., 1876); ''Le Baron Americain'' (1876), ''La Vie de Victor Hugo'' (1886), ''Le Compte Orphee'' (1878), and ''Les Buveurs de poisons: la fée verte'' (1879).<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="De Puy" /> He is also known for ''Mme. Gosselin'', published in an English version, and his novels ''The Steel Hammer'', and its sequel ''For Fifteen''.<ref name="The Lance">{{Cite news |date=May 11, 1889 |title=Announcement – the death of Louis Ulbach |pages=1 |work=The Lance |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82899660/announcement-the-death-of-louis-ulbach/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref> ''The Confession of an Abbe'' was published in English by the month of his death. Described as a powerful story, it tells the story of a priest who "in a moment of passion forgets his vows."<ref name="New Book">{{Cite news |date=1889-04-18 |title=Louis Ulbach's New Book |pages=1 |work=Winfeild Telegram |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82890628/louis-ulbachs-new-book/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref> ''The Steel Hammer'' was another of his books that was translated into English.<ref name="De Puy" />

[[File:Helsingfors-Dagblad-17-02-1889-P-2.jpg|thumb|right|A page from the Finnish newspaper ''Helsingfors Dagblad'' (1889), showing a "ground floor" feuilleton]] Ulbach was a Feuilletonist. The feuilleton was the literary consequence of the Coup of 18 Brumaire (Dix-huit-Brumaire). The feuilleton, which dealt ostensibly with literature, the drama and other harmless topics, but which, nevertheless, could make political capital out of the failure of a book or a play, under the Napoleonic nose, became a power.<ref name="Feuilleton">{{Cite news |date=November 3, 1900 |title=The Feuilleton: Its Effect Upon Journalism in France |pages=7 |work=The Buffalo Commercial |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82910143/the-feuilleton-its-effect-upon/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref>

He was connected with ''L'Indépendance Belge'' for many years.<ref name="De Puy">{{Cite book |last=De Puy |first=William Harrison |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzkPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP384 |page=384 |chapter=Louis Ulbach |title=The University of Literature...: A Cyclopædia of Universal Literature, Presenting in Alphabetical Arrangement the Biography, Together with Critical Reviews and Extracts, of Eminent Writers of All Lands and All Ages |date=1896 |publisher=J.S. Barcus |language=en}}</ref> He edited the ''Revue de Paris'' from 1852 until its suppression in 1858.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="The Lance" /> He became dramatic critic of the ''Temps'', and attracted attention by a series of satirical letters addressed to ''Le Figaro'' over the signature of 'Ferragus', and published separately in 1868.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Ulbach, Louis |volume=27 |page=564}}</ref> As Ferragus, he called the novel ''Thérèse Raquin'' "putrid" in a long diatribe.<ref>Ferragus. "La littérature putride." ''Le Figaro.'' 23 January 1868.</ref> It was said sarcastically of Ulbach that he was so painfully careful with his style that "he would split a hair in four."<ref name="Literary Lights">{{Cite news |date=June 8, 1889 |title=Literary – Lights |pages=3 |work=The Beatrice Daily Express |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82889269/literary-lights/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref>

In 1868 he founded a weekly journal, ''La Cloche'', patterned after ''La Lanterne'' by Henri Rochefort.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="DN - obit" /> ''La Cloche'' was suppressed in 1869 for its hostility to the empire.<ref name="EB1911"/> Ulbach was imprisoned for six months at Sainte-Pélagie Prison after he had written that the Greek translation of Napoleon was "executioner".<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 27, 1869 |title=Louis Ulbach – before the Tribunal Correctionelle |pages=6 |work=Birmingham Daily Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82918880/louis-ulbach-before-the-tribunal/ |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref> Upon on his release he revived the paper he got into trouble both with the commune and the government, and was again imprisoned in 1871–1872.<ref name="EB1911"/> When he was released, he devoted himself to literature and withdrew from politics.<ref name="DN - obit" /> He was the editor of ''Raillement'' in 1876.<ref name="De Puy" /> In 1878 he was made librarian of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He was a leader in the movement for perpetual copyright to authors.<ref name="DN - obit" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{Cite journal |last=Bell |first=David F. |date=1995 |title='Thérèse Raquin': Scientific Realism in Zola's Laboratory |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23536931 |journal=Nineteenth-Century French Studies |volume=24 |issue=1/2 |pages=122–132 |issn=0146-7891 |jstor=23536931}} The polemic between Louis Ulbach and Emile Zola concerning Thérèse Raquin at the moment of the novel's publication gave Zola the chance to develop his thoughts on the relation between science and literature in his responses to Ulbach and in his prefaces to the novel.

==External links== * {{Gutenberg author |id=7515| name=Louis Ulbach}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Louis Ulbach}} * {{Librivox author |id=2954}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulbach, Louis}} Category:1822 births Category:1889 deaths Category:People from Troyes Category:French critics Category:19th-century French novelists Category:French male novelists Category:French male short story writers Category:19th-century French short story writers Category:19th-century French male writers Category:19th-century French journalists Category:19th-century French dramatists and playwrights Category:French recipients of the Legion of Honour