a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While Gautier was an ardent defender of Romanticism, his work is difficult to classify and remains a point of reference for many subsequent literary traditions such as Parnassianism, Symbolism, Decadence and Modernism. In many of Gautier's works, the subject is less important than the pleasure of telling the story. He favored a provocative yet refined style.
