X. B. Saintine | |
|---|---|
 Saintine Engraving by Étienne-Gabriel Bocourt | |
| Born | Joseph Xavier Boniface 10 July 1798 Paris, France |
| Died | 21 January 1865 (aged 66) Paris, France |
| Occupation(s) | Playwright, novelist |
Xavier Boniface Saintine (10 July 1798 – 21 January 1865) was a French dramatist and novelist.
He was born Joseph Xavier Boniface in Paris in 1798. In 1823, he produced a volume of poetry in the manner of the Romanticists, entitled Poèmes, odes, épîtres. In 1836 appeared Picciola, a novel about the Count de Charney, a political prisoner in Piedmont, whose reason was saved by his cultivation of a tiny flower growing between the paving stones of his prison yard. This story is a masterpiece of the sentimental kind, and has been translated into many European languages.[1] The novel earned him renown and came to be regarded as a classic of French literature.[2]
He produced many other novels, none of striking individuality with the exception of Seul (1857), which purported to be the authentic record of Alexander Selkirk on his desert island. Saintine was a prolific dramatist, and collaborated in more than 200 pieces with Eugène Scribe and others, usually under the name of Xavier. He co-wrote the story which was to form the basis for Bellini's opera I puritani. He died in Paris in 1865.[1][2]
A very prolific author, he wrote more than 200 theatre plays and novels under the pen names Saintine, X.B. Saintine, Joseph Xavier Saintine, Xavier.
