Jacques Cazotte (; 17 October 1719 – 25 September 1792) was a French author.
Life
Born in
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
, he was educated by the
Jesuits. Cazotte then worked for the French Ministry of
the Marine and at the age of 27 he obtained a public office at
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...
.
[''The Arabian nights : A Companion''. by Robert Irwin.
London, Allen Lane, 1994, (pp. 260–5).] It was not until his return to Paris in 1760 with the rank of commissioner-general that he made his public debut as an author. His first attempts, a mock romance and a coarse song, gained so much popularity, both in the Court and among the people, that he was encouraged to try something more ambitious. He accordingly produced his romance, ''Les Prouesses inimitables d'Ollivier, marquis d'Edesse''.
Cazotte wrote a number of fantastic oriental tales, such as his children's
fairy tale ''La patte du chat''
(''The Cat's Paw'', 1741) and the humorous ''Mille et une fadaises, Contes a dormir debout''
(''The Thousand and One Follies, Tales to Sleep Upright'' 1742).
His first success was with a "poem" in twelve cantos, and in prose intermixed with verse, entitled ''Ollivier'' (2 vols, 1762), followed in 1771 by another romance, the ''Lord Impromptu''. But the most popular of his works was ''Le Diable amoureux'' (''
The Devil in Love'', 1772), a fantastic tale in which the hero raises
the Devil
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood ...
. The value of the story lies in the picturesque setting, and the skill with which its details are carried out.
Cazotte copy-edited, adapted, and expanded French translations of tales actually and supposedly belonging to the ''Thousand and One Nights'' provided to him by the Syrian priest
Dom Denis Chavis. These stories were published in Geneva in 1788–89, independently as ''Continuation des Mille et Une Nuits'' and, in the ''Cabinet des Fées'' anthology, as ''Suites des Mille et Une Nuits'' (1788–1789).
[Muhsin Mahdi, ''The Thousand and One Nights'' (Leiden: Brill, 1995), pp. 51-61; (repr. from parts of ''The Thousand and One Nights (Alf layla wa-layla), from the Earliest Known Sources'', ed. by Muhsin Mahdi, 3 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1984-1994), ).]
Cazotte possessed extreme facility that he is said to have dashed off a seventh
canto
The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry.
Etymology and equivalent terms
The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the ...
of
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
's ''Guerre civile de Genève'' in a single night. Circa 1775 Cazotte, embraced the creed of the
Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
and declared himself possessed of the power of prophecy. It was upon this event that
Jean-François de la Harpe
Jean-François de La Harpe (20 November 173911 February 1803) was a French playwright, writer and literary critic.
Life
La Harpe was born in Paris of poor parents. His father, who signed himself Delharpe, was a descendant of a noble family orig ...
based his famous ''jeu d'esprit'', in which he represents Cazotte as prophesying the most minute events of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Near the end of his life, Cazotte became a follower of the
Martinist mysticism of
Martinez de Pasqually
Jacques de Livron Joachim de la Tour de la Casa Martinez de Pasqually (1727?–1774) was a theurgist and theosopher of uncertain origin. He was the founder of the l'Ordre de Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coëns de l'Univers - Commonly referred to as ...
, and became a "mystical
monarchist
Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...
".
Upon the discovery of some of his counter-revolutionary letters in August 1792, Cazotte was arrested. He escaped for a time through the efforts of his daughter but was
guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...
d in September.
A complete edition of his work was published as the ''Œuvres badines et morales, historiques et philosophiques de Jacques Cazotte'' (4 vols, 1816–1817), though more than one collection appeared during his lifetime. Cazotte's work was an influence on later fantasy writers
such as
E. T. A. Hoffmann,
Charles Nodier
Jean Charles Emmanuel Nodier (29 April 1780 – 27 January 1844) was a French author and librarian who introduced a younger generation of Romanticists to the ''conte fantastique'', gothic literature, and vampire tales. His dream related writings ...
,
Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval (; 22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855) was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection '' Les ...
and
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
.
[Charlotte Trinquet, "Cazotte, Jacques" in
''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales: A–F'' edited by Donald Haase, Greenwood Publishing Group, ,
(pp. 170–1)]
Writings
* ''Prophetie de Cazotte'' (Reputed)
* ''Ollivier'', 1762.
* ''Le Diable amoureux'' (''
The Devil in Love''), 1772.
* ''A Thousand and One Follies, and His Most Unlooked-for Lordship''. Translated by
Eric Sutton
Eric Dontay Sutton (born October 24, 1972) is a former professional gridiron football defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins and in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and ...
, with an introduction by
Storm Jameson, 1927.
Notes
References
*
Further reading
* Francis Amery (
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped ...
), "Cazotte, Jacques" in ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers'', ed.
David Pringle
David Pringle (born 1 March 1950) is a Scottish science fiction editor and critic.
Pringle served as the editor of '' Foundation'', an academic journal, from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective whi ...
. Detroit: St. James Press/Gale, 1998, .
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cazotte, Jacques
1719 births
1792 deaths
18th-century French novelists
French fantasy writers
French monarchists
Writers from Dijon
French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution
French male novelists
18th-century French male writers