Excerpt from Alphonse Daudet: Biographical and Critical Study I by no means agree with those who hold that it is a good rule that a biography should not be written in the hero's lifetime, and often in reading the life-stories of notable men, of whom I have been a contemporary, who have died, I have found myself regretting that I did not know such and such things about them whilst they lived. It seemed to me that had I known such and such things concerning them whilst we were fellow-beings, my interest in their works would have been a keener one; and. a more important matter, my understanding of my own times would have been clearer and more comprehensive. One likes to hear the great men of the day discussed and described in conversation; why should one, then, object to read of them? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.