Masson, Louis Claude Frederic
MASSON, LOUIS CLAUDE FREDERIC (1847- ), French historian, was born at Paris on the 8th of March 1847. His father, Francis Masson, a solicitor, was killed on the 23rd of June 1848, when major in the garde nalionale. Young Masson was educated at the college of Sainte Barbe, and at the lycee Louis-le-Grand, and then travelled in Germany and in England; from 1869 to 1880 he was librarian at the Foreign Office. At first he devoted himself to the history of diplomacy, and published between 1877 and 1884 several volumes connected with that subject. Later he published a number of more or less curious memoirs illustrating the history of the Revolution and of the empire. But he is best known for his books connected with Napoleon. In Napoleon inconnu (1895), Masson, together with M. Guido Biagi, brought out the unpublished writin (1786-1793) of the future emperor. These were notes, extr; from historical, philosophical and literary books, and perso: reflections in which one can watch the growth of the ideas lai carried out by the emperor with modifications necessitated the force of circumstances and his own genius. But this only one in a remarkable series: Josephine de Beauharna 1763-1796 (1898); Josephine, imperatrice et reine (i Josephine repudiee 1809-1814 (1901); L 'Imperatrice Marie Lou, (1902); Napoleon et les femmes (1894); Napoleon et sa famu (9 vols., 1897-1907); Napoleon et son fils (1904); and Autour I'tle d'Elbe (1908). These works abound in details and amusi anecdotes, which throw much light on the events and men the time, laying stress on the personal, romantic and dramai aspects of history. The author was made a member of the Academic francaise in 1903. From 1886 to 1889 he edited t review Arts and Letters, published in London and New York.
A bibliography of his works, including anonymous ones and thoi under an assumed name, has been published by G. Vicaire (Manuel de I'amateur des livres du XIX" siecle, tome v., 1904). Napoleon et les femmes has been translated into English as Napoleon and the Fair Sex (1894).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
