ABSTRACT
The "July Monarchy" created by the Revolution of 1830 appeared to middle-class liberals as a near-perfect solution to the nation's needs, it left many other groups unsatisfied. Prophetic figure whose influence was at its peak during the first years of the July Monarchy was Felicit de Lamennais, the most original Catholic thinker of the nineteenth century. Lamennais's writing style showed the continuing influence of the romantic current that had begun to dominate French literature in the 1820s. Hugo's assertion, in his preface to his play, that "romanticism is nothing but liberalism in literature" underlined the close connection between literary and political movements. To maintain its conservative policy of limiting political representation to the wealthy in the face of such widespread criticism and unrest, the July Monarchy was soon driven to adopt increasingly repressive measures.
