Charles de Bernard: Le Cimetière ancien de Neuilly-sur-Seine #1

'ICI

REPOSE

CHARLES DE BERNARD

du Grail.

NÉ À BESANÇON (DOUBS)
LE 24 FÉVRIER, 1804.
DÉDÉDÉ À SABLONVILLE, C^N DE NEUILLY*,
LE 6 MARS 1850.

ÉCRIVAIN DISTINGUÉ.
MODESTE DANS LE SUCCÈS.
SIMPLE DANS SES HABITUDES.
COEUR NOBLE ET DÉVOUÉ.
IL A VÉCUT POUR SA FEMME
ET SES ENFANS
DONT IL FIT LE BONHEUR.

PRIEZ POUR LUI.'

'DISTINGUISHED WRITER.
MODEST IN HIS SUCCESS.
SIMPLE IN HIS WAYS.
A NOBLE AND DEVOTED HEART.
HE LOVED HIS WIFE
AND CHILDREN
WHOM HE FILLED WITH HAPPINESS.
 

 PRAY FOR HIM.'

Charles de Bernard was a novelist and short story writer who was very popular in the 1840s. He was a friend of Balzac and was translated into English and appreciated both in Great Britain and the USA.

Time has not been kind to his memory. Writing in the late 1870s, Henry James considered him a second-rate French author largely of only historical interest. He is almost forgotten today.

*Sablonville (literally 'Sandtown') was a village in the commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Today the nearby métro station Les Sablons (Jardin d'Acclimatation) remembers the Plaine des Sablons, where sand was extracted for building purposes.

Below is a link to a novel by Bernard, plus a link to an earlier post I made on other graves in this cemetery:

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Charles de Bernard: Le Noeud gordien (1938)
Cimetière ancien de Neuilly-sur-Seine