Placed first in the agrégation, he spent two years in Athens before making Europe laugh with The King of the Mountains, in which a Greek brigand runs a ransom business. Founder of the daily Le XIXᵉ siècle, elected to the Académie in 1884, he died before delivering his reception speech.
The story
Edmond François Valentin About was born on 14 February 1828 at Dieuze in the Moselle, the son of a grocer he lost as a small child. A schoolfellow of Francisque Sarcey, top prize in philosophy at the Concours général, he entered the École normale supérieure in 1848 and came first in the agrégation in letters.
In 1851 he was posted to the French School at Athens and spent two years in Greece. His paper on the island of Aegina was made with a young architect, Charles Garnier — the man who would later design the Opéra, and Bizet's monument in Division 68.
“La Grèce contemporaine” (1854) brought him instant success: Barbey d'Aurevilly gave it a column in Le Pays that September, and people spoke of a new Voltaire. “Les mariages de Paris” followed in 1856 and “Le Roi des montagnes” in 1857, a brisk satire in which a brigand runs a ransom business on banker's principles; the book was translated across Europe.
He became one of the most feared journalists of his time, a biting art critic, a liberal and anticlerical columnist under an Empire with little taste for a free pen. In 1871 he founded the daily “Le XIXᵉ siècle”, a platform for the new Republic. He had married in 1864 Alexandrine Louise Victoire Le Painturier de Guillerville, by whom he had five children; she lies with him.
Elected to the Académie française in 1884, he died in Paris on 16 January 1885 before he could deliver his reception speech. His bronze statue, a book in hand, shows him in Division 36 exactly as he was in life: it had been sculpted six years before his death.
The grave
A life-size bronze statue, standing, a book in hand: the writer is shown alive, in the dress of his time. It is signed Gustave Adolphe Crauk and dated 1879, six years before About's death — the portrait came before the grave. The inscription is limited to “Edmond About, of the Académie française, 1828-1885”, followed by that of his wife, née Alexandrine de Guillerville, who died in 1929, forty-four years after him.
On site, do not miss
The standing bronze statue, a book in hand, and the date of 1879 engraved by the sculptor — six years before the model's death.
Visitors' questions
Where is Edmond About's grave?
In Division 36, Avenue Circulaire, first row, in the central part of Père-Lachaise. The life-size bronze statue on top, book in hand, makes it visible from a distance in an otherwise unassuming division.
Eugène ScribeWhat is Edmond About's best-known book?
“The King of the Mountains”, published in 1857: a satire depicting Greek brigands as a going commercial concern. The novel was translated across Europe and made his name, six years after his stay at the French School in Athens.
Anna de NoaillesWas Edmond About a member of the Académie française?
He was elected to the Académie française in 1884, at the end of a career as a novelist and journalist. He died on 16 January 1885, a few months later, without ever delivering his induction speech.
Jules VallèsWhat newspaper did he found?
“Le XIXe Siècle”, launched in 1871, one of the dailies that accompanied the establishment of the Third Republic. About championed a liberal, anticlerical line there, carrying on from his columns of the Second Empire.
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