‘Armed Thinker,’ ‘Militant Stoic’: John Morley through French Eyes

Abstract

Without connections, money, or experience, John Morley became one of the period’s leading men of letters – publishing a number of widely respected historical studies and biographies – and a significant political figure. His many admirers included the literary critic and Anglophile Augustin Filon, who published a lengthy character sketch of him in the November 1891 edition of Revue des deux mondes. Two years later, Filon included this essay in his Profils anglais, a study of British political figures. It has, until now, never been translated into English. This essay offers a brief introduction to Filon and Morley and an abbreviated and annotated translation of this important historical document.