Rhétorique et histoire Quelques hypothèses sur la genèse des essais de Taine

Taine presents himself as an impartial scholar who employs the naturalist method. Yet the genesis of his interest in criticism and history can be traced to his research into rhetoric. This research led him to approach the subjects of his investigation synchronically, a tendency characteristic of his positivism, and also contributed to the development of a specific type of sympathetic imagination born out of his erudition.