Henri Frédéric Amiel

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) was a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic. Born in Geneva and orphaned young, he studied in Berlin under the influence of German idealism before returning to teach aesthetics and then moral philosophy at the Academy of Geneva from 1849 until his death. In his lifetime he published several volumes of verse and essays that attracted little notice, and he was regarded as a man who had failed to fulfill his promise. The selections from his private journal published after his death as Fragments d'un journal intime made him famous across Europe, and Mrs. Humphry Ward's English translation, Amiel's Journal, carried his reputation to Britain and America.