Octave Mirbeau

About Octave Mirbeau

Octave Mirbeau (1848–1917) was a highly influential French writer, journalist, and art critic, recognized by the Pantheon project with an Historical Popularity Index (HPI) rank of #522. His significance stems from his pivotal role in literary Naturalism and Symbolism; he was a major proponent of Impressionist painters like Monet and a key figure in French intellectual life, notably through his stinging social critique found in works such as the novel Sébastien Roch and the play Les Affaires sont les affaires.

Despite his high historical standing, Mirbeau receives comparatively little modern digital attention. In 2025, his Wikipedia page garnered only 26K views, placing him at a significant -14x attention gap relative to his historical importance. To contextualize this underattention, a contemporary writer like Paulo Coelho, ranked much lower by HPI at #928, still received over 16 times the annual views (415K views) online.

While his overall attention is low, Mirbeau's visibility did show a minor year-over-year increase of +9.8% in 2025. However, momentum slowed between the first and third quarters, dropping by -7%, suggesting that recent interest may be cooling off.