Émile Legouis
Émile Hyacinthe Legouis (31 October 1861 – 10 October 1937) was a French scholar of English literature and translator. Biography. Son of a haberdasher, member of a family of five children, he began his career teaching one year at the college in Avranches. He became a student at the "École pratique des hautes études" in 1883, he subsequently received first at the agrégation of English in 1885. He was then be appointed lecturer in English language and literature at the University of Lyon. Between 1904 and 1932, he taught English language and literature at the Sorbonne , first as a  lecturer in 1904, then as a professor in 1906 and he obtained the chair in 1919. In 1920, he became deputy dean ("assesseur du doyen"). He is considered to be one of the most significant French scholars of English, the founder of a French school of English studies and co-author, with Louis Cazamian (1877-1965), of a "Histoire de la Littérature anglaise of" which he wrote the first volume devoted to the period extending up to 1660. Over time, this work will establish itself as a reference work. He was less interested in literary theory, and instead focused, according  to René Wellek ("Histoire de la Critique littéraire", volume 3), on the interpretation and the "Esprit du Poète" . He was particularly interested in the poets William Wordsworth (from 1896, with a study by "The Prelude", in "La Jeunesse de Wordsworth"), Geoffrey Chaucer and Edmund Spenser. In his "Défense de la poésie française à l'usage des lecteurs anglais" (1912), he championed French literature which, in his opinion, was under-valued by the English. In his analyzes of English literature, he also puts forward French references, for example when he thinks he recognizes a certain French good humor in Chaucer, or in  his criticism of the excessive use of lyricism in the work of Shakespeare (of which he published a selection in Paris, in 1899). He is one of the authors and supervisor of a collective French translation of Chaucer's "Canterbury" Tales (1908) (which won the Prix Langlois from the French Academy in 1907 and 1909) and in 1928, of an anthology of Wordsworth's poems which he translates into French. He also collaborated with several magazines such as "Études anglaises", the "Revue anglo-américaine", the "Revue germanique", the "Revue critique", the "Revue universitaire". Émile Legouis was appointed a Knight of  the Legion of Honor in 1912. Among his students were Caroline Spurgeon (1869-1942) and René Huchon (1872-1940). Family. On November 21, 1891, he married Claire Chambard, a granddaughter of the doctor, botanist and politician Jacques Hénon (1802-1872). The couple had four children among whom the eldest, Pierre (born in 1892) will become a professor at the faculty of letters of Lyon and the fourth, a girl named Henriette (born in 1897), will be like her father, associate of English and professor. in high schools for young girls She married in 1927 Georges Connes (1890-1974) also professor  of English literature who will became a famous Resistance fighter, politician and brief predecessor of Canon Félix Kir as Mayor of Dijon in 1944 and 1945.