Editing Alphonse de Lamartine (section)

===Early years===
Born in [[Mâcon]], [[Burgundy]], on 21 October 1790,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Life of Lamartine, Volume 1 |last= Whitehouse |first= Henry Remsen | page= 13 |year= 1918 |publisher= BiblioBazaar (2009)|isbn= 978-1-115-29659-5|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vHAGAQAAIAAJ&q=life%20of%20lamartine&pg=PP9 |access-date=14 November 2010}}</ref> into a family of the French provincial nobility, Lamartine spent his youth at the family estate. In his youth he read [[François Fénelon|Fénelon]], [[Voltaire]], [[Évariste de Parny|Parny]], [[Bernardin de Saint-Pierre]], [[Jean Racine|Racine]], [[Torquato Tasso|Tasso]], [[Dante]], [[Petrarch]], [[Mme de Staël]], [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], [[François-René de Chateaubriand|Chateaubriand]], and [[Ossian]].<ref name="Alphonse de Lamartine">{{cite web |url=http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6795 |title= Alphonse de Lamartine |website= [[Catholic Encyclopedia]] |via= Catholic.org}}</ref>

In 1820, Lamartine published his first collection of poems, {{Lang|fr|Les Méditations Poétiques}}, which brought him instant fame.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6795 |title= Alphonse de Lamartine |website= [[Catholic Encyclopedia]] |via= Catholic.org |access-date= 21 April 2016}}</ref> One of the notable poems in this collection was his partly autobiographical poem ''Le Lac'' ("The Lake"), which he dedicated to Julie Charles, the wife of a celebrated physician.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stoléru|first=Lionel|title=Une écoute du romantisme|publisher=Editions L'Harmattan |year= 2011|isbn= 978-2-296-55104-6|location= Paris|pages=12}}</ref> In it he describes in retrospect the fervent love shared by a couple from the point of view of the bereaved man.

He was made a Chevalier of the [[Legion of Honour]] in 1825. He worked for the French embassy in Italy from 1825 to 1828. In 1829, he was elected a member of the [[Académie française]]. He was elected as a member of the [[Chamber of Deputies (France)|Chamber of Deputies]] in 1833. In 1835 he published the [[Voyage en Orient (Lamartine)|''Voyage en Orient'']], an account of the journey he had just made, in royal luxury, to the countries of the Orient, and in the course of which he had lost his only daughter. Lamartine was masterly in his use of French poetic forms but from then on he confined himself to prose. Raised a devout [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]], Lamartine became a [[pantheism|pantheist]], writing ''Jocelyn'' and ''La Chute d'un ange'' and in 1847, ''Histoire des Girondins,'' in praise of the [[Girondists]]. In his older years Lamartine returned to the Church.<ref name="Alphonse de Lamartine"/>