The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Senancour, Étienne Pivert de
(tyn´ pvr´ d snäNcr´) (KEY) , 17701846, French writer. He is known principally for his autobiographical epistolary novel Obermann (1804, tr. 1903). The sentimental attitude toward nature and the morbid melancholy of this novel without a plot are reminiscent of Rousseau, but a pervasive preoccupation with intellectual problems sets it apart from other works of the same genre and period.