Hippolyte Taine: References & Edit History

An authoritative biography and a selection of Taine’s correspondence was edited by his widow with the title Life and Letters of H. Taine, 3 vol. (1902–08). His literary criticism is fully discussed by Leo Weinstein, Hippolyte Taine (1972), which includes a short biography; and by Sholom J. Kahn, Science and Aesthetic Judgment: A Study in Taine’s Critical Method (1953, reissued 1970). D.G. Charlton, Positivist Thought in France During the Second Empire, 1852–1870 (1959, reprinted 1976), places Taine’s work in a historical context.