Ferdinand Fabre was born in
Bédarieux in the upper valley of the
Orb, in the department of
Hérault, the setting for his novels. Under the influence of his mother, he entered a small seminary at
Saint-Pons-de-Thomières and, in 1847, a larger seminary at
Montpellier. He was brought up by his uncle, the Abbé Fulcran Fabre, at
Camplong, and he gave an account of his childhood and early youth in
Ma Vocation. His experiences in the ecclesiastical milieux provide one of the main themes of his novels. In 1848, before taking his final vows, he experienced an ecstatic vision of Christ, who warned him "It is not the will of God that you should be a priest." He abandoned his priestly vocation and briefly studied medicine at Montpellier. He then went to Paris and was articled as a clerk to a lawyer. In 1853 he published a volume of verses,
Feuilles de lierre, but after a breakdown in health he returned to his old home at Bédarieux. After some eight or nine years of country life he reappeared in Paris with the manuscript of his first novel,
Les Courbezon. He eventually left his civil service position and devoted himself entirely to literary work, moving to Paris where his social circle included many writers and artists. Among his closest friends was the writer
Hector Malot; Fabre was also a close friend of the painter
Jean-Paul Laurens, whose biography he wrote. By the time of his death he had published about 20 novels, many of which dealt with the daily business of country priests in the
Cévennes. Although he never became a priest, he maintained an understanding of, and a sympathy with, the clerical character, and he always denied that he was hostile to the Church. His daughter Valentine Clotilde Fabre was born in 1858 and died in 1942. She married Ferdinand Auguste Emile Duviard (1859–1949) and gave birth to a son
Ferdinand Duviard (1889–1965), who became a writer and
Esperantist, and a daughter Henriette Léonie Duviard (1895–1974). Ferdinand Fabre died in Paris, five days before his agreed-upon election to the
Académie française. Rue Ferdinand-Fabre, in the 15th arrondissement de Paris, is named in his honor. His novel
Le Chevrier (and the poem by Maurice Audubert-Boussat) inspired the 1925 opera
Le Chevrier by
Émile Goué. Fabre's novel
Xavière inspired the 1895 opera
Xavière by
Théodore Dubois. == Selected works ==