Senancour, Étienne Pivert de

Senancour, Étienne Pivert de (ātyen' pēver' du sunäNcOOr') [key], 1770–1846, French writer. He is known principally for his autobiographical epistolary novel Obermann (1804, tr. 1903). The sentimental attitude toward nature and the morbid melancholy of this novel without a plot are reminiscent of Rousseau, but a pervasive preoccupation with intellectual problems sets it apart from other works of the same genre and period.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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