[or Assolant; Jean Baptiste Alfred]. French journalist and novelist; born at Aubusson, in 1827; died in Paris in 1886. He visited the United States in 1852, and upon his return in 1859 wrote a series of sketches as Scènes de la Vie des États-Unis, in connection with which he shortly after brought a charge of plagiarism against Victorien Sardou, maintaining that Sardou made use of his work in the play Uncle Sam. Sardou was acquitted of the charge. He followed his first sketches by a long series of novels, including Brancas (1859); Marcomir; Gabrielle de Chenevert; François Buchamor; Pendragon (1881). He was equally notable as a sarcastic and powerful journalist and political writer, being a regular contributor to the Revue des Deux Mondes.
