16 Facts About Albert Sorel

Albert Sorel was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times.

Albert Sorel was born at Honfleur and remained throughout his life a lover of his native Normandy.

Albert Sorel went to live in Paris, where he studied law and, after a prolonged stay in Germany, entered the Foreign Office.

Albert Sorel had strongly developed literary and artistic tastes, was an enthusiastic musician, and wrote both poetry and novels ; but he was not a socialite.

Albert Sorel was the first cousin to the philosopher Georges Sorel.

Albert Sorel proved a most valuable collaborator, full of finesse, good temper, and excellent judgment, and at the same time hard-working and discreet.

In 1875 Albert Sorel left the Foreign Office and became general secretary to the newly created office of the Presidence du senat.

Albert Sorel's duties left him sufficient leisure to enable him to accomplish the great work of his life, L'Europe et la revolution francaise.

Albert Sorel's object was to repeat the work already done by Heinrich von Sybel but from a less restricted point of view and with a clearer and calmer understanding of the chessboard of Europe.

Albert Sorel spent almost thirty years in the preparation and composition of the eight volumes of this diplomatic history; volume 1 appeared in 1885; volume 8 in 1904.

Albert Sorel was, and above all things, an artist.

Albert Sorel drew men from the point of view of a psychologist as much as of a historian, observing them in their surroundings and being interested in showing how greatly they are slaves to the fatality of history.

Side by side with this great general work, Albert Sorel undertook various detailed studies more or less directly bearing on his subject.

Albert Sorel was elected a member of the Academie des sciences morales et politiques on the death of Fustel de Coulanges, and of the Academie francaise on the death of Hippolyte Taine.

Albert Sorel's view was that Napoleon was legitimately fighting for the long-established French aim of 'natural frontiers' and that Napoleon merely inherited a foreign 'situation' and therefore did not create his own foreign policy, which has been contested by recent historians, such as Matthew MacLachlan and Michael Broers.

Albert Sorel had just obtained the great Prix Osiris of 100,000 francs, conferred for the first time by the Institut de France, when he was stricken with his last illness and died at Paris.