Jules Gabriel Janin, a French author, born of Jewish parents at St. Etienne, Dec. 11, 1804, died at Passy, June 20, 1874. He completed his classical studies at the college of Louis-le-Grand in Paris, studied law, and made a living as a private tutor; but he soon became one of the contributors to the Figaro, a sprightly opposition paper, and was also a regular writer for the royalist journal, the Quotidienne, until the accession of the Polignac cabinet in August, 1829. A few weeks later he became a regular contributor to the Journal des Debats; and after writing political and miscellaneous articles, he took charge of the theatrical notices. His articles were less criticisms than short essays, written in a colloquial and gossiping style. Besides numerous prefaces, introductions, and articles in nearly every Parisian periodical which existed during his career, Janin published several novels, the first of which was L'Ane mort et la femme guillotinee (1829). Among his subsequent writings of the same class are La confession (1830), Barnave (1831), Le chemin de traverse (1836), Un coeurpour deux amours (1837), La religieuse de Toulouse (1850), and Lesgaites champetres (1851). He prepared an abridgment of Richardson's " Clarissa Harlowe," with an Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages de Samuel Richardson (1846). Among his miscellaneous works, exclusive of several illustrated publications to which he did little more than lend his name, are: Contes fantastiques et contes litte-raires (1832); Contes nouveaux (1833); Les catacombes (1839); Le voyage d'un homme heureux (1840); Les petits bonheurs (1856); Les symphonies de l'hiver (1857), with drawings by Gavarni; and Rachel et la tragedie, a biographical and critical work, with photographic illustrations (1859). His Histoire de la litterature dramatique en France (4 vols., 1851-'6) is a selection of his weekly feuilletons, remodelled so as to present a sketch of the history of the French stage and dramatic artists during nearly a quarter of a century.

In 1870 he succeeded Sainte-Beuve in the French academy. His latest work was Paris et Versailles il y a cent ans (1874).