An hour ago, I received the people of the 18th century. It delighted me. I believe I cried, and it would be strange if this little good book did not evoke similar feelings in many others. Friedrich Nietzsche. Is Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, this famous, revered yet criticized French literary critic of the 19th century, now passé in Germany? When he died in Paris in 1869, almost as old as the century itself, Gustave Flaubert asked with whom he could still discuss literature. Marcel Proust's book "Contre Sainte-Beuve" has compromised and promoted his posthumous fame - in Germany, there is virtually no book by this enormously influential intellectual available today. Ironically, Friedrich Nietzsche, who was also an opponent of Sainte-Beuve, encouraged Ida Overbeck to publish some texts from the "Causeries du".