Vie de Jésus [Life of Jesus] (French)

Vie de Jésus [Life of Jesus] (French)

Renan, Ernest

Paris: Nelson, 1863[?]

HathiTrust

1863[?]

George Eliot to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 26 December 1863. "I am indulging myself frightfully, reading everything except the "current literature" and getting more and more out of rapport with the public taste. I have read Renan's book, however, which has proved to be eminently in the public taste. It will have a good influence on the whole I imagine; but this "Vie de Jésus" and still more Renan's Letter to Berthelot in the Revue des deux Mondes have compelled me to give up the high estimate I had formed of his mind. Judging from the indications in some other writings of his I had reckoned him amongst the finest thinkers of the time. Still his Life of Jesus has so much artistic merit that it will do a great deal towards the culture of ordinary minds by giving them a sense of unity between that far-off past and our present. I have witnessed this effect in our own Charlie, who is now reading Strauss on the strength of the interest which Renan created." GEL 4: 123

Renan, Ernest, Vie de Jésus [Life of Jesus] (French), George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57157

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/3f1173cd7ba8dd1378c91de1db83a9c5.pdf