Germain-François Poullain de Saint-Foix (5 February 1698 – 25 August 1776) was an 18th-century French writer and
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just
Readin ...
.
Life
He served with the
musketeers until he was 36, distinguishing himself at
Guastalla
Guastalla ( Guastallese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Reggio Emilia in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Geography
Guastalla is situated in the Po Valley, and lies on the banks of the Po River. Guastalla is located at around from the citi ...
in 1734. He then left the army and purchased a post as "maître des eaux et forêts" in Rennes. He published his first comedy, ''Pandore'', in 1721 and from 1740 devoted himself entirely to writing, setting up in Paris and becoming a fashionable author there. He wrote 20 comedies in all.
In 1764 he was made historian of the
ordre du Saint-Esprit. The jurist
Auguste-Marie Poullain-Duparc was his brother.
Works
* ''Pandore'' (1721)
* ''Lettres d’une Turque à Paris'' (1730), in imitation of the ''
Persian Letters'' by
Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
He is the principal so ...
- reissued under the titles ''Lettres de Nedim Koggia'' (1732) and ''Lettres turques'' (1760)
* ''L’Oracle'' (1740)
* ''Deucalion et Pyrrha'' (1741)
* ''L’Île sauvage'' (1743)
* ''Le Sylphe'' (1743)
* ''Les Grâces'' (1744)
* ''Julie'' (1746)
* ''Egérie'' (1747)
* ''Les Veuves turques'' (1747)
* ''Les Métaphores'' (1748)
* ''La Colonie'' (1749)
* ''Le Rival supposé'' (1749)
* ''Les Hommes'' (1753)
* ''Essais historiques sur Paris'', 5 vol. (London, 1754–1757)
* ''Le Financier'' (1761)
* ''Origine de la Maison de France'' (1761)
* ''Histoire de l’Ordre du Saint-Esprit'' (1767)
* ''Lettres au sujet de l'
homme au masque de fer'' (1768)
Sources
* Jean de Viguerie, ''Histoire et dictionnaire du temps des Lumières'',
Robert Laffont, "Bouquins" collection, Paris, 1995
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Foix, Germain-François Poullain de
18th-century French historians
18th-century French dramatists and playwrights
18th-century French male writers
Historiographers
Writers from Brittany
Writers from Rennes
1698 births
1776 deaths