Claude Joseph Dorat (31 December 1734 – 29 April 1780) was a French writer, also known as Le Chevalier Dorat.
He was born in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, of a family consisting of generations of
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
s, and he joined the corps of the king's
musketeer
A musketeer (french: mousquetaire) was a type of soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern warfare particularly in Europe as they normally comprised the majority of their infantry. The musketeer was a pre ...
s. He became fashionable for his work, ''Réponse d'Abélard à Héloise'' ("
Abelard
Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This source has a detailed desc ...
's Answer to
Heloise"), and followed up this first success with a number of heroic epistles, ''Les Victimes de l'amour, ou lettres de quelques amants célébres'' (1776) ("Victims of Love, or Letters from some famous lovers").
Besides light verse he wrote comedies, fables and, among other novels, ''Les Sacrifices de lamour, ou lettres de la vicomtesse de Senanges et du chevalier de Versenay'' (1771). He tried to cover his failures as a dramatist by buying up large numbers of seats for performances, and his books were lavishly illustrated by good artists and expensively produced, in order to secure their success. Nevertheless, he managed to attract hatred both of the ''philosophe'' party as well as of their arch-enemy,
Charles Palissot de Montenoy
Charles Palissot de Montenoy (3 January 1730 – 15 June 1814) was an 18th-century French playwright, admirer and disciple of Voltaire and Antoine de Rivarol. Paradoxically, he was often denounced as a Counter-Enlightenment opponent to the parti ...
, and thus cut himself off from the possibility of academic honours. ''Le Tartufe littéraire'' (1774) attacked
La Harpe and Palissot, and at the same time
D'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''Encyclopédie ...
and
Mlle de Lespinasse.
Works
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References
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External links
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His playso
''CÉSAR''Books and documents by Claude Joseph Doratat
Gallica
Claude-Joseph Doraton
Data.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorat, Claude Joseph
1734 births
1780 deaths
18th-century French journalists
18th-century French writers
18th-century French male writers
18th-century French dramatists and playwrights