Edmond de Goncourt

Edmond de Goncourt – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896) was a French novelist, critic, and the founder of the Académie Goncourt. His works with his brother Jules, his Journal, and his sharp reflections on art and society made him a controversial and influential figure. Explore his life, achievements, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt (May 26, 1822 – July 16, 1896) was a French writer, art critic, literary critic, publisher, and founder of the Académie Goncourt.

Though less read today for his novels, Edmond de Goncourt’s influence in French letters lies significantly in his Journal des Goncourt (the Goncourt Journals), his critical writing on art, and above all his bequest establishing the Prix Goncourt — the most prestigious French literary prize.

His sharp wit, aesthetic taste, and biting judgments continue to provoke, inspire, and draw study. In what follows, we will trace his biography, explore his career and legacy, and collect his best-known sayings.

Early Life and Family

Edmond de Goncourt was born into a minor aristocratic family in Nancy, France. His parents were Marc-Pierre Huot de Goncourt, a retired cavalry officer, and Annette-Cécile Guérin.

The Goncourt family had roots in the village of Goncourt (in the Meuse region); their grandfather had political and social standing from pre-Revolutionary times.

Edmond had a younger brother, Jules de Goncourt (born 1830), with whom he would later collaborate intensely in literary and critical endeavors.

His family’s relative wealth, especially after the death of their mother in 1848, gave the brothers financial freedom to pursue literary and artistic interests.

Youth and Education

From a young age, Edmond displayed intellectual curiosity and ambition. He was educated in Paris, attending the pension Goubaux, then the Lycée Henri IV, and later the Lycée Condorcet.

At the Lycée Condorcet (approximately 1840–1842), he studied rhetoric and philosophy. Then he turned to law studies between 1842 and 1844.

However, it appears that those formal studies were not his true calling; the literary and artistic life beckoned more strongly. At one point, he held a treasury clerkship, which made him profoundly unhappy — so much so that he considered extreme measures before quitting.

The inheritance from his mother’s passing allowed both brothers to leave financial dependency behind and devote themselves to literature, critique, and collecting.

Career and Achievements

Collaboration with Jules and Early Works

Edmond’s career is inextricably bound to that of his brother Jules. From around 1851 onward, they jointly produced a Journal des Goncourt (Journal of the Goncourts), which recorded daily reflections, judgments, gossip, artistic and literary observations, and personal meditations.

They also co-authored novels, essays, and critical studies, particularly on 18th-century French art. Their joint works include Germinie Lacerteux (1865), Manette Salomon (1867), Madame Gervaisais (1869), and Les Maîtresses de Louis XV (a multi-volume study) among others.

Part of their major critical and aesthetic project was L’Art du XVIIIe siècle, a multi-volume series of essays and commentary on the art of the 18th century, in which they played a major role in reviving interest in Rococo and overlooked artists.

Their output as critics, journalists, and novelists placed them among the influential figures of French letters in the mid to late 19th century.

Legal Trouble and Controversy

In 1852, Edmond and Jules were indicted for “outrage against public morality” due to their quoting of erotic Renaissance poetry in a journal article — a reflection of the more controversial, boundary-pushing edge of their literary interests. They were ultimately acquitted.

Their Journal des Goncourt was often provocative: they did not shy away from sharp criticism, social gossip, and personal attacks (including jealousy of contemporaries). After Jules’s death, Edmond continued the Journal alone until shortly before his death.

Later Work, Solo Novels, and Artistic Interests

When Jules died in 1870, Edmond took up both the role of chronicler and the completion of unfinished works.

He published solo novels such as La Fille Élisa (1877), Les Frères Zemganno (1879), La Faustin (1882), and Chérie (1884).

His interest in the decorative and visual arts remained strong. He collected rare books, works of Japanese and Rococo art, and in La Maison d’un Artiste (1881) he documented his own house and collection.

He also issued monographs and catalogs, such as the Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d’Antoine Watteau (1875), and later works on Japanese artists like Hokousai (1896).

Foundation of the Académie Goncourt

One of Edmond’s enduring legacies is the founding of the Académie Goncourt. In his will, he left his entire estate to create a literary organization that would carry on his and Jules’s mission of promoting letters.

The Académie was to consist of ten members (eight nominated by his will), each receiving an annuity, and it was charged with awarding an annual literary prize (the Prix Goncourt) to the best fictional work of the year.

Since 1903, the Prix Goncourt has been awarded every December, becoming the most prestigious literary prize in French literature.

Historical Milestones & Context

• Rise of Realism and Naturalism: The Goncourt brothers’ novels are often associated with realism and are sometimes considered precursors or part of the naturalist movement in French letters.

• Literary Salons and Networks: Edmond maintained close friendships with key writers and artists of his era: Gustave Flaubert, Alphonse Daudet, Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, and sculptor-painter circles in Paris.

• 19th-Century French Society and Politics: The Goncourts lived through turbulent times: the 1848 Revolution, the Second Empire, the Franco‐Prussian War, the Paris Commune, and the early Third Republic. Their journals record both aesthetic and political observations.

• Cultural Shifts in Aesthetic Taste: Their revival of interest in 18th-century art, Rococo, decorative arts, and Japanese prints mirrored broader trends of rediscovery of pre-Revolutionary visual culture.

Legacy and Influence

• Prix Goncourt: The annual literary prize established by Edmond remains among the highest honors in French literature.

• Journal des Goncourt as Historical Source: His and Jules’s Journals are valued not just for literary merit but as a window into Parisian literary life, interpersonal rivalries, salons, controversies, and social mores of 19th-century France.

• Art History and Criticism: Edmond’s aesthetic judgments and cataloging of artists contributed to modern valuation of 18th-century French art as well as early interest in Japanese art in Europe.

• Literary Memory: Though his fictional works are less widely read today, his influence lingers via the institutions and literary debates he helped shape.

However, his legacy is not without controversy: his Journal reveals jealousies, sharp attacks on contemporaries (such as Maupassant), and sometimes reactionary (even anti-Republican or antisemitic) sentiments, which modern readers must reckon with.

Personality and Talents

Edmond de Goncourt was, by accounts and in his writings, a sharp, discerning, sometimes irritable observer. His aesthetic sensibility was acute: he was drawn to beauty in forms neglected by his contemporaries (Rococo, decorative interiors, Japanese prints).

He loved collecting — books, art, curiosities — and his home became a kind of curated museum of taste, which he described in La Maison d’un Artiste.

He also had a gift for pithy judgment and aphoristic writing, which shows up in his Journal and other critical texts. His wit could be cutting, his standards uncompromising.

Yet he was also emotionally invested in relationships, rivalries, and the pain of literary life. His emotional tone in parts of his Journals reveals both vulnerability and fierce pride.

His strengths lay in criticism, aesthetic sensitivity, and long-term vision (as with founding the Académie). His weaknesses included envy, harshness toward peers, and at times a tendency toward moral rigidity.

Famous Quotes of Edmond de Goncourt

Below are several well-known quotations attributed to Edmond de Goncourt, reflecting his aesthetic, philosophical, and moral sensibility:

“If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.”
“A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.”
“Man is a mind betrayed, not served, by his organs.”
“Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.”
“As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture.”
“The English are crooked as a nation and honest as individuals. The contrary is true of the French, who are honest as a nation and crooked as individuals.”
“We asked ourselves whether, in these days of equality in which we live, there are classes unworthy the notice of the author and the reader…”
“Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present.”
“Today I begin to understand what love must be, if it exists. When we are parted, we each feel the lack of the other half of ourselves.”

These selections illustrate his range: from philosophical reflection to aesthetic critique to commentary on society and love.

Lessons from Edmond de Goncourt

1. Passion for the Marginal: Edmond reminds us to look beyond the obvious — to appreciate art, beauty, or voices neglected by the mainstream.

2. Honesty in Critique: His judgments could be fierce, but they came from deep conviction. One can aspire to speak truth (with care) rather than echo fashionable praise.

3. Legacy through Institution-building: His foresight in creating the Académie shows how one’s influence may live on beyond one’s works.

4. The Value of Personal Journaling: The Journal des Goncourt serves as both a literary and historical archive — an example of how daily writing can accumulate enduring value.

5. Complexity of Human Character: Goncourt’s contradictions — brilliance and envy, generosity and harshness — remind us that great figures are seldom uncomplicated.

Conclusion

Edmond de Goncourt stands as a singular figure in 19th-century French cultural life: a critic, aesthete, collector, novelist, and chronicler of his age. Though time has tempered the public reading of his fiction, his Journal, his critical voice, and the Prix Goncourt ensure that his influence continues.

His life underscores that literature is not only in the books we write, but in the judgments we keep, the institutions we found, and the sensibilities we nurture. Explore further his Journals and critical essays — and consider how his insights might illuminate debates in art, literature, and society today.