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 was a Norman. He was born on the 4th of October 1814 in the hamlet of Gruchy, in the parish of Gréville, the district of Beaumont, and the department of La Manche, north of Cotentin, in a region conspicuous for solid good sense and wild country. He was the second of eight children. The name of Jean was given to him after his father, and that of François in honour of St Francis of Assisi.

His family was a fine instance of that reserve of moral strength and dignified thought which often exists among the poorer French people. Tolstoy said, about one of the most famous realistic novels that have appeared in France during the last twenty years: "If the French people were such as it is depicted in this book, the whole history of France would become incomprehensible to me." How, indeed, could beings devoid of any ideal explain a history that is so frequently and so 35