Théodore de Banville

Théodore Faullain de Banville (1823 –1891) was a French poet and writer. His work was influential on the Symbolist movement in French literature in the late 19th century.

Banville was born in Moulins in Allier, Auvergne, the son of a captain in the French navy. His boyhood was cheerlessly passed at a lycée in Paris; he was not harshly treated, but took no part in the amusements of his companions. On leaving school with but slender means of support, he devoted himself to letters, and in 1842 published his first volume of verse (Les Cariatides), which was followed by Les Stalactites in 1846. The poems encountered some adverse criticism but secured for their author the approbation and friendship of Alfred de Vigny and Jules Janin.

The Odes funambulesques (1857) received unstinted praise from Victor Hugo, to whom they were dedicated. In 1858 Banville was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur and was promoted to an Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1886. He died in Paris in 1891 at the age of 68 and was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.