Gourmont, Rémy de (1858–1915)

French critic and novelist. A prolific essayist, he influentially disseminated the aesthetic doctrines of French Symbolism, committed to the relativity of truth and the necessarily aesthetic basis of all literary judgement. His rather cerebral novels include Sixtine: Roman de la vie cérébrale/Very Woman 1890.

Gourmont was born in Bazoches-en-Houlme. He helped to found the Mercure de France 1890 and edited this and several other journals. His style was impeccable, and he indulged in much philosophic finesse in his critical essays, which include ‘Esthétique de la langue française’ 1899, ‘Le Problème du style’ 1902, and Promenades littéraires 1904–28. He also wrote the plays Lilith 1892 and Les Vieux Rois 1897, and published several collections of short stories, including Histoires magiques 1895 and Un Coeur virginal 1907.