Henri Cazalis (1840 - July, 1909), French poet and man of letters, was born at Cormeilles-en-Parisis (Seine-et-Oise) in 1840. He wrote under the pseudonyms of Jean Caselli and Jean Lahor.

His works include:

  • Chants populaires de l'Italie (1865)
  • Vita tristis, Reveries fantastiques, Romances sans musique (1865)
  • Le Livre du néant (1872)
  • Henry Regnault, sa vie et son œuvre (1872)
  • L'Illusion (1875-1893)
  • Melancholia (1878)
  • Cantique des cantiques (1885)
  • Les Quatrains d'Al-Gazali (1896)
  • William Morris (1897).
The author of the Livre du néant has a predilection for gloomy subjects and especially for pictures of death. His oriental habits of thought earned for him the title of the Hindou du Parnasse contemporain.

See a notice by P Bourget in Anthologie des poétes fr. du XIXieme siècle (1887-1888); Jules Lemaître, Les Contemporains (1889); Émile Faguet in the Revue bleue (October 1893).

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