He was born at
Montbrison, Loire, of a modest provincial family. After completing his studies at
Lyon, he produced, in 1839, a small volume of religious verse,
Les Parfums de Madeleine. This was followed in 1840 by
La colère de Jesus, in 1841 by the religious fantasy of
Psyche, and in 1844 by
Odes et poèmes. In 1845 Laprade visited Italy on a mission of literary research, and in 1847 he was appointed professor of
French literature at Lyon. The
Académie française, by a single vote, preferred
Émile Augier at the election in 1857, but in the following year Laprade was chosen to fill the place vacated by
Alfred de Musset. In 1861 Laprade was removed from his post at Lyon owing to the publication of a poem
satirising the
Second Empire (''Les Musées d'Etat''), and in 1871 was elected to the
National Assembly as a conservative. A statue was erected in his memory at Montbrison. Besides those named above, Laprade's poetic works include
Poèmes évangéliques (1852),
Idylles héroïques (1858),
Les Voix du silence (1864),
Pernette (1868),
Poèmes civiles (1873), ''Le Livre d'un père
(1877), Varia and Livre des adieux'' (1878–1879). His prose works include ''Des habitudes intellectuelles de l'avocat
(1840), Questions d'art et de morale
(1861), Le Sentiment de la nature, avant le Christianisme
in 1866, Chez les modernes
in 1868, and Education libérale
in 1873. In some cases these works had been previously printed after delivery as a lecture. He also contributed articles to the Revue des deux mondes and the Revue de Paris''. Laprade's subject was French provincial life, its culture, its piety, and its sober
patriotism. His poetry belongs to the school of
Chateaubriand and
Alphonse de Lamartine, imitating classical models, inspired by a sense of the ideal, and worshipping nature as revealing the divine. However, he never attained a great level of popularity. His work has much in common with the English
Lake School. Laprade's prose criticisms consist of classical and
metaphysical studies, as well as wide-ranging commentary on European literature. He disliked
irony and
skepticism, which probably lead him to underrate
18th-century literature. ==References==