Sieyès, sa vie et ses travaux

What it is

This is an essay titled Sieyès, sa vie et ses travaux, written by the historian François-Auguste Mignet and published in the Revue des Deux Mondes in 1837. It opens with an account of Sieyès's birth in Fréjus and his early education for the church, before describing his intellectual formation in the ideas of the eighteenth century.

Why it matters

Written in the same year that Sieyès died, Mignet's essay is an early attempt to sum up his life and legacy, written by a contemporary historian rather than someone who knew him personally. It shows how Sieyès was already being assessed as a historical figure, shaped by Enlightenment ideas and critical of inherited tradition and privilege.

Look closer

• Why might a historian choose to write about someone's life and work so soon after their death?
• How does Mignet connect Sieyès's personality to the intellectual currents of his century?
• What might be left out of an essay written so close to its subject's death?