Le « Tallemant des Réaux de la Critique » Barbey d’Aurevilly juge de Sainte-Beuve

This study shows that the numerous articles Barbey d’Aurevilly wrote about Sainte-Beuve’s critical work might have nourished Proust’s attack on Sainte-Beuve’s method. If Barbey took against Sainte-Beuve for his interest in the life and personality of writers, he also reproached him for his cowardice and degrading use of anecdotes, which reduced literary criticism to nothing more than gossip.