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Jeanne Quinault
Jeanne Quinault (baptized 13 October 1699 – 18 January 1783)Judith Curtis, ''"Divine Thalie": the career of Jeanne Quinault'', ''SVEC'' 2007:08, pp. 10–11. was a French actress, playwright and salon hostess. She was usually called Mlle. Quinault ''la cadette'' (the younger) to distinguish her from her older sister, Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault, also an actress. She herself thought her name was Jeanne-Françoise Quinault until 1726, when she obtained a copy of her baptismal record and discovered her legal name, but most references to her use the two given names. Stage career She made her début at the Comédie-Française on 14 June 1718 and was accepted into the company in December 1718, becoming the sixth member of the Quinault family to be admitted. She gave her first performance in the title role of Racine's ''Phèdre'' and five days later played Chimène in Pierre Corneille's ''Le Cid''. The choices are rather surprising, because she became famous in soubrette and comic ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people held by an inspiring host. During the gathering they amuse one another and increase their knowledge through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" (Latin: ''aut delectare aut prodesse''). Salons in the tradition of the French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries were carried on until as recently as the 1920s in urban settings. Historical background The salon was an Italian invention of the 16th century, which flourished in France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The salon continued to flourish in Italy throughout the 19th century. In 16th-century Italy, some brilliant circles formed in the smaller courts which resembled salons, often galvanized by the presence of a beautiful and educated patroness such as Berta Zuckerkandl, Isabella d'Este or Elisabetta Gonzaga. Salons were an important place for the exchange of i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diderot
Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment. Diderot initially studied philosophy at a Jesuit college, then considered working in the church clergy before briefly studying law. When he decided to become a writer in 1734, his father disowned him. He lived a bohemian existence for the next decade. In the 1740s he wrote many of his best-known works in both fiction and non-fiction, including the 1748 novel ''The Indiscreet Jewels''. In 1751, Diderot co-created the ''Encyclopédie'' with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. It was the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many named contributors and the first to describe the mechanical arts. Its secular tone, which included articles skeptical about Biblical miracles, angered both religious and go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confessions (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
The ''Confessions'' is an autobiographical book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In modern times, it is often published with the title ''The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau'' in order to distinguish it from Saint Augustine's '' Confessions''. Covering the first fifty-three years of Rousseau's life, up to 1765, it was completed in 1769, but not published until 1782, four years after Rousseau's death, even though Rousseau did read excerpts of his manuscript publicly at various salons and other meeting places. Background and contents The ''Confessions'' was two distinct works, each part consisting of six books. Books I to VI were written between 1765 and 1767 and published in 1782, while books VII to XII were written in 1769–1770 and published in 1789. Rousseau alludes to a planned third part, but it was never completed. Though the book contains factual inaccuracies – in particular, Rousseau's dates are frequently off, some events are out of order, and others are misrepresented, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought. His ''Discourse on Inequality'' and ''The Social Contract'' are cornerstones in modern political and social thought. Rousseau's sentimental novel ''Julie, or the New Heloise'' (1761) was important to the development of preromanticism and romanticism in fiction. His ''Emile, or On Education'' (1762) is an educational treatise on the place of the individual in society. Rousseau's autobiographical writings—the posthumously published '' Confessions'' (composed in 1769), which initiated the modern autobiography, and the unfinished '' Reveries of the Solitary Walker'' (composed 1776–1778)—exemplified the late 18th-century " Age of Sensibility", and featured an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles-Just De Beauvau
Charles Juste de Beauvau, Prince of Craon (10 September 1720 – 21 May 1793), 2nd Prince of Craon (1754), Marshal of France (1783) was a French scholar, nobleman and general. The son of Marc de Beauvau, he was also brother of the famous Madame de Boufflers and through her uncle to the poet Stanislas de Boufflers. Personal and public life Charles Juste was born at the Hôtel de Craon in Lunéville in the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. Beauvau family was the most powerful family in Lorraine after the ruling Duke of Lorraine. His mother, Anne Marguerite de Ligneville, was the mistress of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, husband of Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (niece of Louis XIV). He was the thirteenth of twenty children. He married twice; firstly on 3 April 1745 to Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne (20 December 1729 – 6 September 1763), daughter of Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne and his last wife Louise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine. The couple had one chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Collé
Charles Collé (14 April 1709 – 3 November 1783) was a French dramatist and songwriter. Biography The son of a notary, he was born in Paris. He became interested in the rhymes of Jean Heguanier, the most famous writer of couplets in Paris. From a notary's office, Collé was transferred to that of the receiver-general of finance, where he remained for nearly twenty years. When about seventeen, however, he made the acquaintance of Alexis Piron, and afterwards, through Gallet (1698?–1757), of Panard. The example of these three masters of the vaudeville decided his future but also made him diffident; and for some time he composed nothing but ''amphigouris''—verses whose merit was measured by their unintelligibility. The friendship of the younger Crébillon helped broaden his horizons, and the establishment in 1729 of the famous "Société du Caveau", a drinking-club known for its wit and good company, gave him a field for the display of his fine talent for popular song. In 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Adrien Helvétius
Claude Adrien Helvétius (; ; 26 January 1715 – 26 December 1771) was a French philosopher, freemason and '' littérateur''. Life Claude Adrien Helvétius was born in Paris, France, and was descended from a family of physicians, originally surnamed ''Schweitzer'' (meaning " Swiss" in German; Latinized as '' Helvétius''). His great-grandfather Johann Friedrich Schweitzer known as "Helvetius", was an Dutch physician and alchemist, of German extraction. His grandfather Adriaan Helvetius introduced the use of ipecacuanha; his father Jean Claude Adrien Helvétius was first physician to Marie Leszczyńska, queen of France. Claude Adrien was trained for a financial career, apprenticed to his maternal uncle in Caen,''Helvetius: A Study in Persecution'' by David Warner Smith, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1965. but he occupied his spare time with poetry. Aged twenty-three, at the queen's request, he was appointed as a farmer-general, a tax-collecting post worth 100,000 crowns a year. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophes
The ''philosophes'' () were the intellectuals of the 18th-century Enlightenment.Kishlansky, Mark, ''et al.'' ''A Brief History of Western Civilization: The Unfinished Legacy, volume II: Since 1555.'' (5th ed. 2007). Few were primarily philosophers; rather, philosophes were public intellectuals who applied reason to the study of many areas of learning, including philosophy, history, science, politics, economics, and social issues. They had a critical eye and looked for weaknesses and failures that needed improvement. They promoted a "republic of letters" that crossed national boundaries and allowed intellectuals to freely exchange books and ideas. Most philosophes were men, but some were women. They strongly endorsed progress and tolerance, and distrusted organized religion (most were deists) and feudal institutions. Many contributed to Diderot's ''Encyclopédie''. They faded away after the French Revolution reached a violent stage in 1793. Characterization ''Philosophe'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Pinot Duclos
Charles Pinot (or Pineau) Duclos (12 February 1704 – 26 March 1772) was a French author and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers''. Biography Duclos was born at Dinan in Brittany and studied at Paris. After some time spent in dissipation he began to cultivate the society of wits and joined a club of young men who published their literary efforts under such titles as ''Recueil de ces messieurs'', ''Étrennes de la saint Jean'', ''Œufs de Pâques'' etc. His romance ''Acajou et Zirphile'' was the result of a wager among the club's members: Duclos composed it for a series of engraved plates intended for another work. He wrote two other romances which were favorably received: ''The Baroness de Luz'' (1741) and ''Confessions of Count de ***'' (1747). Académie française Duclos became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1739 and of the Académie Française in 1747, being appointed perpetual secretary. In 1747, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Prosper Jolyot De Crébillon
Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (13 February 1707 – 12 April 1777), called "Crébillon fils" (to distinguish him from his father), was a French novelist. Born in Paris, he was the son of a famous tragedian, Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon. He received a Jesuit education at the elite Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Early on he composed various light works, including plays for the Italian Theatre in Paris, and published a short tale called ''Le Sylphe'' in 1730. From 1729 to 1739 he participated in a series of dinners called "Le Caveau" (named after the cabaret where they were held) with other artists, including Alexis Piron, Charles Collé, and Charles Duclos. The publication of ''Tanzaï et Néadarné, histoire japonaise'' (1734), which contained thinly veiled attacks on the Papal bull Unigenitus, the cardinal de Rohan and others, landed him briefly in the prison at Vincennes.Carole Dornier,Orient romanesque et satire de la religion: Claude Crébillon, Tanzaï et Néadarné et Le So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
