Villemain was appointed by the restoration government Chef de l'imprimerie et de la librairie, a post involving a kind of irregular censorship of the press, and afterwards to the office of master of requests.
Villemain had the great advantage of coming just before the Romantic movement, of having a wide love of literature without being an extremist.
Villemain's chief work is his Cours de la littérature française (5 vols., 1828-1829).
This was one of the most favourable periods ever for scholars and men of letters in France, and Michelet had powerful patrons in Abel-FrancoisVillemain and Victor Cousin, among others.
Although he was an ardent politician (having from his childhood embraced republicanism and a peculiar variety of romantic free-thought), he was first of all a man of letters and an inquirer into the history of the past.
At nineteen he entered the normal school, where he studied under Eugène Burnouf, Abel-FrancoisVillemain, and Victor Cousin.
After teaching for several years in provincial towns, he came to Paris, where he lectured on philosophy in various institutions, and finally became professor in the normal school, and titular professor at the Sorbonne.
