living in no state of convulsive crimes; and we follow him in his lively, malicious account of their manners, without risk of lighting upon any such horrors as Balzac or Dumas has provided for us. Henry James, in his French Poets and Novelists (1878), wrote: Charles de Bernard has at the present day hardly more than an historical value, and his novels are not to be recommended to people who have anything of especial importance at hand to read. But in speaking of the secondary French novelists it is but fair to allow him a comfortable niche, for if he be not especially worth studying he at least leaves you a very friendly feeling for him if he comes in your way. References This article includes material from the preface (by Jules Claretie) to an English translation of Gerfaut External links 1804 births 1850 deaths Writers from Besançon 19th-century French poets 19th-century French novelists French male poets French male novelists French male short story writers 19th-century French short story writers