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Henri Frédéric Amiel
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Henri Frédéric Amiel
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Henri Frédéric Amiel
Henri Frédéric Amiel Henri Frédéric Amiel, detail of a heliograph by an unknown artist.

Henri Frédéric Amiel

Swiss writer
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Quick Facts
Born:
Sept. 27, 1821, Geneva, Switz.
Died:
May 11, 1881, Geneva (aged 59)

Henri Frédéric Amiel (born Sept. 27, 1821, Geneva, Switz.—died May 11, 1881, Geneva) was a Swiss writer known for his Journal intime, a masterpiece of self-analysis. Despite apparent success (as professor of aesthetics, then of philosophy, at Geneva), he felt himself a failure. Driven in on himself, he lived in his Journal, kept from 1847 until his death and first published in part as Fragments d’un journal intime (1883–84; later enlarged editions; definitive ed. by L. Bopp, 1939–48). It reveals a sensitive man of great intellectual ability, struggling for values against the skepticism of the age. Widely translated, it gained Amiel lasting fame.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.