He was born at
La Châtre (
Indre). Among his works may be distinguished his comedies:
Projets de sagesse (1811), and, in collaboration with
Émile Deschamps,
Selmours de Florian (1818), which ran for a hundred nights; also ''La Reine d'Espagne
(1831), which proved too indecent for the public taste; a novel, Fragoletta ou Naples et Paris en 1799
(1829), which attained success of notoriety; La Vallée aux loups
(1833), a volume of prose essays and verse; and two volumes of poems, Les Adieus
, (1843) and Les Agrestes'' (1844). Latouche's chief claim to remembrance is that he revealed to the world the genius of
André Chénier, then only known to a limited few. The remains of the poet's work had passed from the hands of
Daunou to Latouche, who had sufficient critical insight instantly to recognize their value. In editing the first selection of Chénier's poems (1819) he made some trifling emendations, but did not, as
Beranger afterwards asserted, make radical and unnecessary changes. Latouche was guilty of more than one literary fraud. He caused a licentious story of his own to be attributed to the
duchess of Duras, the irreproachable author of
Ourika. He made many enemies by malicious attacks on his contemporaries. The
Constitutionnel was suppressed in 1817 by the government for an obscure political allusion in an article by Latouche. He then undertook the management of the
Mercure du XIXe siècle, and began a bitter warfare against the monarchy. After 1830 he edited
Le Figaro, and spared neither the liberal politicians nor the romanticists who triumphed under the
monarchy of July. In his turn he was violently attacked by
Gustave Planche in the
Revue des deux mondes for November 1831. Latouche did much to encourage George Sand at the beginning of her career. The last twenty years of his life were spent in retirement at
Val d’Aulnay.
Sainte-Beuve, in the
Causeries du lundi, vol. 3, gives a not too sympathetic portrait of Latouche. See also George Sand in the
Siecle for the 18th, 19th and 20 July 1851. ==References==