Gobineau, Joseph Arthur, comte de, 1816-82, French diplomat and man of letters. The chief early French proponent of the theory of Nordic supremacy, he was antidemocratic and anti-Semitic. His major work was Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines (1853-55, tr. The Inequality of Human Races, 1915). He also wrote short stories, notably Nouvelles asiatiques (1876, tr. Five Oriental Tales, 1925).