Chronological list of

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

s (regardless of nationality), by date of birth. For an alphabetical list of writers of French nationality (broken down by genre), see French writers category.

Middle Ages

* Turold (eleventh century) *

Wace Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his care ...

(1110 – c.1180) *

Chrétien de Troyes Chrétien de Troyes (Modern ; fro, Crestien de Troies ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on Arthurian subjects, and for first writing of Lancelot, Percival and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's works, including ''E ...

(c.1135 – c.1183) *

Richard the Lionheart Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

(Richard Coeur de Lion) (1157–1199) *

Benoît de Sainte-Maure Benoît de Sainte-Maure (; died 1173) was a 12th-century French poet, most probably from Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine near Tours, France. The Plantagenets' administrative center was located in Chinon, west of Tours. ''Le Roman de Troie'' His 40,000 ...

(12th-century) *

Herman de Valenciennes Herman de Valenciennes, 12th-century French poet, was born at Valenciennes. Life His father and mother, Robert and Herembourg, belonged to Hainaut, and gave him for god-parents Count Baldwin and Countess Yoland—doubtless Baldwin IV of Hainault ...

(12th-century) * Le Châtelain de Couci (d.1203) *

Jean Bodel Jean Bodel (c. 1165 – c. 1210), was an Old French poet who wrote a number of ''chanson de geste, chansons de geste'' as well as many fabliaux. He lived in Arras. Writings Bodel wrote ("Song of the Saxons") about the war of King Charlemagne wi ...

(12th century – c.1210) *

Conon de Béthune Conon de Béthune (before 1160 in the former region of Artois, today Pas-de-Calais - 17 December 1219, possibly at Adrianople) was a French crusader and trouvère poet who became a senior official and finally regent of the Latin Empire of Constan ...

(c.1150–1220) *

Geoffroi de Villehardouin Geoffrey of Villehardouin (c. 1150 – c. 1213) was a French knight and historian who participated in and chronicled the Fourth Crusade. He is considered one of the most important historians of the time period,Smalley, p. 131 best known for w ...

(c.1160 – c.1213) *

Béroul Béroul was a Norman or Breton poet of the 12th century. He wrote ''Tristan'', a Norman language version of the legend of Tristan and Iseult of which a certain number of fragments (approximately 3000 verses) have been preserved; it is the earliest ...

(c.1170) *

Thomas d'Angleterre Thomas of Britain (also known as Thomas of England) was a poet of the 12th century. He is known for his Old French poem ''Tristan'', a version of the Tristan and Iseult legend that exists only in eight fragments, amounting to around 3,300 lines of v ...

(c.1170) *

Aimeric de Peguilhan Aimeric or Aimery de Peguilhan, Peguillan, or Pégulhan (c. 1170 – c. 1230) was a troubadour ( fl. 1190–1221)Gaunt and Kay, 279. born in Peguilhan (near Saint-Gaudens), the son of a cloth merchant. Aimeric's first patron was Raimon ...

(c.1170 -c. 1230) *

Gace Brulé Gace Brulé (''c.'' 1160 – ''after'' 1213) was a French nobleman and trouvère from Champagne. His name is simply a description of his blazonry. He owned land in Groslière and had dealings with the Knights Templar, and received a gift from t ...

(c.1170) *

Marie de France Marie de France ( fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court ...

(c.1175) *

Gautier de Coincy Gautier de Coincy (1177–1236) was a French abbot, trouvère and musical arranger, chiefly known for his devotion to the Virgin Mary. While he served as prior of Vic-sur-Aisne he compiled ''Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame'' (known in English as ''T ...

(1177/8–1236) *

Gautier de Dargies Gautier de Dargies (ca. 1170 – ca. 1240) was a trouvère from Dargies. He was one of the most prolific of the early trouvères; possibly twenty-five of his lyrics survive, twenty-two with accompanying melodies, in sixteen separate ''chansonn ...

(c.1170–after 1236) *

Gautier d'Espinal Gautier d'Espinal (also d'Epinal, d’Épinal or d'Espinau) (died before July 1272).Theodore Karp, "Gautier d'Espinal". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/10765 (accessed 24 Dec ...

(† before July 1272) *

Gillebert de Berneville Gillebert (Guillebert) de Berneville (''Floruit, fl. '' 1250–70) was a French trouvère. According to Theodore Karp, in its time, "his poetry was much appreciated", but it is " ither original nor profound," rather he was and is admired more fo ...

( fl c.1255) *

Gontier de Soignies Gontier de Soignies was a medieval trouvère and composer who was active from around 1180 to 1220. Biography Gontier was from the region of Soignies in the County of Hainaut, a region that was then a state of the Holy Roman Empire. His life is mo ...

( fl c.1180–1220) *

Guiot de Dijon Guiot de Dijon ('' fl.'' 1215–25) was a Burgundian trouvère. The seventeen ''chansons'' ascribed to him in the standard listing of Raynaud-Spanke are found in fifteen chansonniers, some without attribution or with conflicting attributions w ...

( fl c.1200–30) *

Perrin d'Angicourt Perrin d'Angicourt (''floruit'' 1245–70) was a trouvère associated with the group of poets active in and around Arras. His birthplace was most likely Achicourt, just south of Arras. His surviving oeuvre is large by the standards of the trouvère ...

( fl c.1245–50) *

Jean Renart Jean Renart, also known as Jean Renaut, was a Norman trouvère from the end of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th to whom three works are firmly ascribed: two metrical chivalric romances, ''L'Escoufle'' ("The Kite") and ''Guillaume de D ...

(fl. late 12th-first half of 13th century) * Philippe de Rémi (c.1205–c1265) * Philippe de Beaumanoir (c.1247–c1296) *

Raoul de Soissons Raoul de Soissons (1210x15 – 1270, or shortly thereafter) was a French nobleman, Crusader, and trouvère. He was the second son of Raoul le Bon, Count of Soissons, and became the Sire de Coeuvres in 1232. Raoul participated in three Crusad ...

(c.1215–1272) *

Richard de Fournival Richard de Fournival or Richart de Fornival (1201 – ?1260) was a medieval philosopher and trouvère perhaps best known for the '' Bestiaire d'amour'' ("The Bestiary of Love"). Life Richard de Fournival was born in Amiens on October 10, 1201. He ...

(1201– c.1260) *

Andrieu Contredit d'Arras Andrieu Contredit d'Arras ( 1200 – 1248) was a trouvère from Arras and active in the Puy d'Arras. "Contredit" is probably a nickname. He wrote mostly ''grand chants'', but also a ''pastourelle'', a '' lai'', and a ''jeu-parti'' with Guillaum ...

(† c.1248) *

Jehan le Cuvelier d'Arras Jehan le Cuvelier d'Arras (''fl''. ''c''. 1240–70) was a trouvère associated with the so-called "school of Arras". He may be the same person as Johannes Cuvellarius from Bapaume, a suburb of Arras, who is mentioned in documents of 1258. He was t ...

( fl c.1240–70) *

Guillaume le Vinier Guillaume le Vinier (''c''. 1190–1245) was a cleric and trouvère, one of the most prolific composers in the genre.Theodore Karp, "Le Vinier, Guillaume", ''Grove Music Online'', ''Oxford Music Online'' (accessed 20 September 2008). He has left co ...

( fl c.1220–45; †1245) *

Audefroi le Bâtard Audefroi le Bastart (modern French Bâtard) was a French trouvère from Artois, who flourished in the early thirteenth century. Of his life nothing is known, though he is certainly the illegitimate child of a noble or upper-class bourgeoisie famil ...

( fl c.1200–1230) *

Jehan Bretel Jehan Bretel (''c''.1210 – 1272) was a trouvère. Of his known oeuvre of probably 97 songs, 96 have survived. Judging by his contacts with other trouvères he was famous and popular. Seven works by other trouvères ( Jehan de Grieviler, Jehan Era ...

(c.1200–1272) *

Jehan Erart Jehan Erart (or Erars) (''c''.1200/10–1258/9) was a trouvère from Arras, particularly noted for his favouring the ''pastourelle'' genre. He has left behind eleven ''pastourelles'', ten ''grand chants'', and one '' serventois''. Erart's pres ...

(† c.1259) *

Moniot d'Arras Moniot d'Arras ('' fl.'' 1213–1239) was a French composer and poet of the trouvère tradition. He was a monk ("Moniot" is a diminutive for monk) of the abbey of Arras in northern France; the area was at the time a center of ''trouvère'' activi ...

( fl c.1250–75) *

Robert de Clari Robert de Clari (or Cléry, the modern name of the place, on the commune of Pernois) was a knight from Picardy. He participated in the Fourth Crusade with his lord, Count Peter of Amiens, and his brother, Aleaumes de Clari, and left a chronicle of ...

(late twelfth century) *

Blondel de Nesle Blondel de Nesle – either Jean I of Nesle (c. 1155 – 1202) or his son Jean II of Nesle (died 1241) – was a French trouvère. The name 'Blondel de Nesle' is attached to twenty-four or twenty-five courtly songs. He was identified in 1942, b ...

(late twelfth century) *

Robert de Boron Robert de Boron (also spelled in the manuscripts "Roberz", "Borron", "Bouron", "Beron") was a French poet of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, notable as the reputed author of the poems and ''Merlin''. Although little is known of him apart f ...

(twelfth–thirteenth century) *

Guiot de Provins Guiot de Provins, also spelled Guyot (died after 1208), was a French poet and trouvère from the town of Provins in the Champagne area. A declining number of scholars identify him with Kyot the Provençal, the alleged writer of the source materia ...

(d. after 1208) *

Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube (i.e. Bertrand from Bar-sur-Aube) (end of the 12th century – early 13th centuryHasenohr, 170.) was an Old French poet from the Champagne region of France who wrote a number of '' chansons de geste''. He is the author of ...

(late twelfth-early thirteenth century) *

Guillaume de Lorris Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200c. 1240) was a French scholar and poet from Lorris. He was the author of the first section of the ''Roman de la Rose''. Little is known about him, other than that he wrote the earlier section of the poem around 1230, ...

(c.1200 – c.1238) *

Theobald IV of Champagne Theobald I (french: Thibaut, es, Teobaldo; 30 May 1201 – 8 July 1253), also called the Troubadour and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne (as Theobald IV) from birth and King of Navarre from 1234. He initiated the Barons' Crusade, was famous ...

(1201–1253) *

Jean de Joinville Jean de Joinville (, c. 1 May 1224 – 24 December 1317) was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France. He is most famous for writing the ''Life of Saint Louis'', a biography of Louis IX of France that chronicled the Seventh Crusade.''V ...

( c.1224 – c.1317) *

Rutebeuf Rutebeuf (or Rustebuef) (fl. 1245 – 1285) was a French trouvère (poet-composers who worked in France's northern dialects). Early life He was born in the first half of the 13th century, possibly in Champagne (he describes conflicts in Troyes i ...

(c.1230 – c.1285) *

Adam de la Halle Adam de la Halle (1245–50 – 1285–8/after 1306) was a French poet-composer ''trouvère''. Among the few medieval composers to write both monophonic and polyphonic music, in this respect he has been considered both a conservative and progr ...

(c.1250 – c.1285) *

Jean de Meun Jean de Meun (or de Meung, ) () was a French author best known for his continuation of the '' Roman de la Rose''. Life He was born Jean Clopinel or Jean Chopinel at Meung-sur-Loire. Tradition asserts that he studied at the University of Paris. He ...

g or

(1250 – c.1305) or Jean Clopinel or Chopinel *

Jacques Bretel Jacques Bretel or Jacques Bretex (dates of birth and death unknown) was a French language ''trouvère'', best known for having written ''le Tournoi de Chauvency''. His only known work, signed and dated in 1285, ''le Tournoi de Chauvency'' is a lo ...

(c. 1285 – c. 1310) *

Jean Le Bel Jean Le Bel (c. 1290 – 15 February 1370) was a chronicler from Liège. Biography Jean Le Bel's father, Gilles le Beal des Changes, was an alderman of Liège. Jean entered the church and became a canon of the cathedral church, but he and his b ...

(c.1290–1370) *

Colin Muset Colin Muset (''fl''. ''c''. 1210–50 or 1230–70) was an Old French trouvère and a native of Lorraine. He made his living in the Champagne by travelling from castle to castle singing songs of his own composition and playing the vielle. T ...

(end of thirteenth century) *

Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...

( c.1300 – c.1377) *

Nicole Oresme Nicole Oresme (; c. 1320–1325 – 11 July 1382), also known as Nicolas Oresme, Nicholas Oresme, or Nicolas d'Oresme, was a French philosopher of the later Middle Ages. He wrote influential works on economics, mathematics, physics, astrology an ...

(1325–1382) *

Philippe de Mézières Philippe de Mézières (c. 1327 – May 29, 1405), a French soldier and author, was born at the chateau of Mézières in Picardy. Period of soldiering (1344–1358) Philippe belonged to the poorer nobility. At first, he served under Luchino Visc ...

(c.1327–1405) *

Jean Froissart Jean Froissart ( Old and Middle French: '' Jehan'', – ) (also John Froissart) was a French-speaking medieval author and court historian from the Low Countries who wrote several works, including ''Chronicles'' and ''Meliador'', a long Arthuria ...

(1333 – c.1404) *

Eustache Deschamps Eustache Deschamps (13461406 or 1407) was a French poet, byname Morel, in French "Nightshade". Life and career Deschamps was born in Vertus. He received lessons in versification from Guillaume de Machaut and later studied law at Orleans Univers ...

(c.1346 – c.1407) * Jean Charlier called Gerson (1363–1429 *

Christine de Pisan Christine de Pizan or Pisan (), born Cristina da Pizzano (September 1364 – c. 1430), was an Italian poet and court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French dukes. Christine de Pizan served as a court writer in medieval France ...

(1364–1430) *

Alain Chartier Alain Chartier (1430) was a French poet and political writer. Life Alain Chartier was born in Bayeux to a family marked by considerable ability. His eldest brother Guillaume became bishop of Paris; and Thomas became notary to the king. Jean C ...

(c.1385 – c.1435) *

Jean Juvénal des Ursins Jean (II) Juvénal des Ursins (1388–1473), the son of the royal jurist and provost of the merchants of Paris Jean Juvénal, was a French cleric and historian. He is the author of several legal treatises and clerical publications and the ''Histoi ...

(1388–1473) *

Antoine de la Sale Antoine de la Sale (also ''la Salle'', ''de Lasalle''; 1385/861460/61) was a French courtier, educator and writer. He participated in a number of military campaigns in his youth and he only began writing when he had reached middle age, in the late ...

(1388 – c.1469) *

Enguerrand de Monstrelet Enguerrand de Monstrelet (c. 140020 July 1453) was a French chronicler. He was born in Picardy, most likely into a family of the minor nobility. Life In 1436 and later he held the office of lieutenant of the ''gavenier'' (i.e. receiver of the ' ...

(c.1390 – c.1453) * Charles, duc d'Orléans (1394–1465)

Fifteenth century

Martin Le Franc Martin le Franc ( – 1461) was a French poet of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Life and career He was born in Normandy, and studied in Paris. He entered clerical orders, becoming an apostolic prothonotary, and later becoming secretar ...

(c.1410–1461) * Eustache Marcadé (1414–1440) *

Georges Chastellain Georges Chastellain (c. 1405 or c. 1415 – 20 March 1475), Burgundian chronicler and poet, was a native of Aalst in Flanders. Chastellain's historical works are valuable for the accurate information they contain. As a poet he was famous am ...

(1415–1475) *

Olivier de la Marche Olivier de la Marche (1425–1502) was a courtier, soldier, chronicler and poet in the last decades of the independent Duchy of Burgundy. He was close to Charles the Bold, and after his death held the important position of maître d'hotel to his ...

(1425–1502) *

Martial d'Auvergne Martial d'Auvergne (Martial of Auvergne, Martial of Paris, 1420 – 13 May 1508) was a French poet. Originally from Auvergne, he served as notary at Châtelet, and later as attorney (''procureur'') for the Paris parlement. His most importan ...

( c.1430–1508) *

François Villon François Villon (Modern French: , ; – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these ex ...

(c.1431–after 1463) * Jean Michel (c.1435–1501) *

Jean Molinet Jean Molinet (1435 – 23 August 1507) was a French poet, chronicler, and composer. He is best remembered for his prose translation of ''Roman de la rose''. Born in Desvres, which is now part of France, he studied in Paris. He entered the s ...

(1435–1507) *

Philippe de Commines Philippe de Commines (or de Commynes or "Philippe de Comines"; Latin: ''Philippus Cominaeus''; 1447 – 18 October 1511) was a writer and diplomat in the courts of Burgundy and France. He has been called "the first truly modern writer" (Charles ...

(1445–1511) *

Jean Marot Jean Marot (Mathieu, near Caen, 1463 – c. 1526) was a French poet of the late 15th and early 16 century and the father of the French Renaissance poet Clément Marot. He is often grouped with the "Grands Rhétoriqueurs". Jean Marot seems to ha ...

(1450–1526) * Lefèvre d'Etaples (1455–1537) *

Guillaume Crétin Guillaume Dubois or Guillaume Crétin (c. 1460 – 30 November 1525) was a French poet who is considered to belong to the school of the Grands Rhétoriqueurs ("rhetoricians"). Life He was treasurer of the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes, then cantor ...

(Guillaume Dubois) (1460–1525) *

Octavien de Saint-Gelais Octavien de Saint-Gelais (1468–1502) was a French churchman, poet, and translator. He translated the ''Aeneid'' into French language, French, as well as Ovid, Ovid's ''Heroides''. Born in Cognac, France, Cognac, Charente, he studied theolog ...

(1468–1505) *

Guillaume Budé Guillaume Budé (; Latinized as Guilielmus Budaeus; 1468 – 1540) was a French scholar and humanist. He was involved in the founding of Collegium Trilingue, which later became the Collège de France. Budé was also the first keeper of the ...

(1468–1540) *

Jean Meschinot Jean Meschinot (1420, Monnières, near Clisson – September 12, 1491) was a Breton poet who wrote in French at the court of the dukes of Brittany. His birthplace was in the Mortiers domain, around 30 km south of Nantes, capital of the duch ...

(active from 1450–1490) *

Guillaume Alexis Guillaume Alexis (precise birth and death dates unknown) was a French Benedictine monk and poet of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, nicknamed the "Good Monk". His abbey was that at Lire (La Vieille-Lyre), in the diocese of Évreux, He became ...

(active from 1450–1490) *

Jean Lemaire de Belges Jean Lemaire de Belges (c. 1473c. 1525) was a Walloon poet and historian, and pamphleteer who, writing in French, was the last and one of the best of the school of poetic 'rhétoriqueurs' (“rhetoricians”) and the chief forerunner, both in style ...

(1473 – c.1525) *

Pierre Gringore Pierre Gringore (; 1475? – 1538) was a popular French poet and playwright. Biography Pierre Gringore was born in Normandy, at Thury-Harcourt, but the exact date and place of his death are unknown. His first work was ''Le Chasteau de Labour ...

or Gringoire (c.1475–1538/1539) *

François Rabelais François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and ...

(c.1483–1553) * Aliénor de Poitiers (fl.1484) *

Mellin de Saint-Gelais Mellin de Saint-Gelais (or ''Melin de Saint-Gelays'' or ''Sainct-Gelais''; c. 1491 – October, 1558) was a French poet of the Renaissance and Poet Laureate of Francis I of France. Life He was born at Angoulême, most likely the natural ...

(c.1491–1558) *

Marguerite de Navarre Marguerite de Navarre (french: Marguerite d'Angoulême, ''Marguerite d'Alençon''; 11 April 149221 December 1549), also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was a princess of France, Duchess of Alençon and Berry, and Queen ...

(c.1492–1549) *

Clément Marot Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French Renaissance poet. Biography Youth Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496–1497. His father, Jean Marot (c.&n ...

(c.1496–1544)

Sixteenth century

1500–1549

Bonaventure des Périers Bonaventure ( ; it, Bonaventura ; la, Bonaventura de Balneoregio; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Catholic Franciscan, bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister G ...

(c.1500–1544) *

Maurice Scève Maurice Scève (c. 1501–c. 1564), was a French poet active in Lyon during the Renaissance period. He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch. This ...

(c.1505 – c.1562) *

Michel de l'Hospital Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), S ...

(1505–1573) *

Étienne Dolet Étienne Dolet (; 3 August 15093 August 1546) was a French scholar, translator and printer. Dolet was a controversial figure throughout his lifetime. His early attacks upon the Inquisition, the city council and other authorities in Toulouse, tog ...

(1509–1546) *

Jean Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

(1509–1564) *

Hélisenne de Crenne Hélisenne de Crenne was a French novelist, epistolary writer and translator during the Renaissance. Critics generally agree that "Hélisenne de Crenne" was the pseudonym of Marguerite Briet (c. 1510, Abbeville - after 1552), a French gentlewoman ...

(Marguerite Briet de Crenne) (c.1510–after 1552) *

Pierre Viret Pierre Viret (1509/1510 – 4 April 1571) was a Swiss Reformed theologian, evangelist and Protestant reformer. Early life Pierre Viret was born in 1509 or 1510 in Orbe, then in the Barony of Vaud, now in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. He wa ...

(1511–1571) *

Charles de Sainte-Marthe Charles de Sainte-Marthe (1512–1555) was a French Protestant and theologian. External links * 1512 births 1555 deaths French Renaissance humanists French Protestant theologians 16th-century Protestant theologians 16th-century French ...

(1512–1555) *

Thomas Sébillet Thomas Sébillet (1512–1589) was a French jurist, an essayist and a neo-Platonist grammarian.''Encyclopédie de la littérature'' (''Literary Encyclopedia''), Le Livre de Poche, "La Pochothèque" collection, 2004, p. 1828 He is now remembered fo ...

(c.1512–1589) *

Jacques Amyot Jacques Amyot (; 30 October 15136 February 1593), French Renaissance bishop, scholar, writer and translator, was born of poor parents, at Melun. Biography Amyot found his way to the University of Paris, where he supported himself by serving some ...

(1513–1593) *

Jacques Peletier du Mans Jacques Pelletier du Mans, also spelled Peletier ( la, Iacobus Peletarius Cenomani, 25 July 1517 – 17 July 1582) was a humanist, poet and mathematician of the French Renaissance. Born in Le Mans into a bourgeois family, he studied at the Col ...

(1517–1582) *

Théodore de Bèze Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation ...

(1519–1605) *

Pierre de Saint-Julien de Balleure Pierre de Saint-Julien de Balleure (1519–1593) was a Burgundian historian of the Renaissance period The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Age ...

(1519–1593) *

Denis Sauvage Denis Sauvage (1520–1587) was a French translator, historian, publisher, philologist, and historiographer at the service of Henry II of Henri II. Publications History * ''Sommaire des histoires du royaume de Naples : qui traicte de toutes ...

(1520–1587) *

Noël du Fail Noël du Fail, seigneur de La Hérissaye (c. 1520 – 1591) was a French jurist and writer of the Renaissance. His collections of tales are an important document of rural life in the sixteenth century in Brittany. Biography Noël du Fail was bor ...

(1520–1591) * Pernette Du Guillet (c.1520–1545) *

Jacques Yver Jacques Yver, seigneur de la Bigoterie and de Plaisance (c.1548 – 1571/72) Simonin, Michel, ed. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises - Le XVIe siècle.'' Article "Yver (Jacques)", pp. 1214–1215, Paris: Fayard, 2001. was a French writer of th ...

(1520–1570) *

Gilles de Gouberville Gilles Picot, squire of Gouberville, Le Mesnil-au-Val and Russy (1521 – 7 March 1578), was a French diarist. Biography Gilles Picot, a Norman squire, member of the local but ancient gentry, was the eldest son of Guillaume V Picot, squire de ...

(1521–1578) *

Pontus de Tyard Pontus de Tyard (also Thyard, Thiard) (c. 1521 – 23 September 1605) was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade". Life He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was ''seigneur'', but the exact year of his birth is u ...

or de Thiard (1521–1605) *

Joachim du Bellay Joachim du Bellay (; – 1 January 1560) was a French poet, critic, and a founder of the Pléiade. He notably wrote the manifesto of the group: '' Défense et illustration de la langue française'', which aimed at promoting French as an a ...

(1522–1560) *

Pierre de Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a "prince of poets". Early life Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of C ...

(1524–1585) *

Pierre Boaistuau Pierre Boaistuau, also known as Pierre Launay or Sieur de Launay (c. 1517, Nantes – 1566, Paris), was a French Renaissance humanist writer, author of a number of popularizing compilations and discourses on various subjects. Beside his many popul ...

(?–1566) *

Louise Labé Louise Charlin Perrin Labé, ( 1524 – 25 April 1566), also identified as La Belle Cordière (The Beautiful Ropemaker), was a feminist French poet of the Renaissance born in Lyon, the daughter of wealthy ropemaker Pierre Charly and his second wif ...

(c.1526 – c.1565) *

Rémy Belleau Remy (or Rémi) Belleau (1528 – 6 March 1577) was a poet of the French Renaissance. He is most known for his paradoxical poems of praise for simple things and his poems about precious stones. Life Remy was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou. A noblema ...

(1528–1577) *

Étienne Pasquier Étienne Pasquier (7 June 15291 September 1615) was a French lawyer and man of letters. By his own account he was born in Paris on 7 June 1529, but according to others he was born in 1528. He was called to the Paris bar in 1549. In 1558 he bec ...

(1529–1615) *

Étienne de La Boétie Étienne or Estienne de La Boétie (; oc, Esteve de La Boetiá; 1 November 1530 – 18 August 1563) was a French magistrate, classicist, writer, poet and political theorist, best remembered for his intense and intimate friendship with essayist ...

(1530–1563) * Claude Fauchet (1530–1601) *

Jean Bodin Jean Bodin (; c. 1530 – 1596) was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is known for his theory of sovereignty. He was also an influential writer on demonology. Bodin l ...

(1530–1596) *

François de Belleforest François de Belleforest (1530 – 1 January 1583) was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in Samatan (actual department of Gers), into a poor family, and his father (a soldier) was killed when he was ...

(1530–1583) *

Henri Estienne Henri Estienne (; ; 1528 or 15311598), also known as Henricus Stephanus (), was a French printer and classical scholar. He was the eldest son of Robert Estienne. He was instructed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew by his father and would eventually tak ...

(1531–1598) *

Jean Antoine de Baïf Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean ...

(1532–1589) *

Étienne Jodelle Étienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin (1532July 1573), French dramatist and poet, was born in Paris of a noble family. He attached himself to the poetic circle of the Pléiade and proceeded to apply the principles of the reformers to dramatic ...

(1532–1573) *

Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...

(Michel Eyquem, seigneur de Montaigne) (1533–1592) * Jean de la Taille (c.1533/1540 – c.1617) *

Robert Garnier Robert Garnier (1544 – 20 September 1590) was a French poet and dramatist. He published his first work while still a law-student at Toulouse, where he won a prize (1565) in the Académie des Jeux Floraux. It was a collection of lyrical pi ...

(1534–1590) *

Nicolas Rapin Nicolas Rapin (1535 – 16 February 1608) was a French Renaissance magistrate, royal officer, translator, poet and satirist, known for being one of the authors of the Satire Ménippée (1593/4) and an outspoken critic of the excesses of the Holy L ...

(1535–1608) *

Jacques Grévin Jacques Grévin (''c''. 1539 – 5 November 1570) was a French playwright. Grévin was born at Clermont, Oise in about 1539, and he studied medicine at the University of Paris. He became a disciple of Ronsard, and was one of the band of dramati ...

(1538–1570) *

Olivier de Serres Olivier de Serres (; 1539–1619) was a French author and soil scientist whose '' Théâtre d'Agriculture'' (1600) was the accepted textbook of French agriculture in the 17th century. Biography Serres was born in 1539 at Villeneuve-de-Berg, A ...

(1539–1619) *

Pierre Pithou Pierre Pithou (1 November 1539 – 1 November 1596) was a French lawyer and scholar. He is also known as Petrus Pithoeus. Life He was born at Troyes. From childhood he loved literature, and his father Pierre encouraged this interest. Young P ...

(1539–1596) *

Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme Pierre de Bourdeille (, – 15 July 1614), called the seigneur et abbé de Brantôme, was a French historian, soldier and biographer. Life Born at Bourdeilles in the Périgord, Brantôme was the third son of the baron François de Bourde ...

(1540–1614) *

Pierre de Larivey Pierre de Larivey (20 July 1549 – 12 February 1619) was a French dramatist of Italian origin. He is credited with introducing the Italian "comedy of intrigue" into France. Life Little is known of Larivey's biography. The suggestion made b ...

(1540–1619) *

Florent Chrestien Florent Chrestien (January 26, 1541 – October 3, 1596) was a French satirist and Latin poet. Chrestien was the son of Guillaume Chrestien, an eminent French physician and writer on physiology, was born at Orléans. A pupil of Henri Estienne, the ...

(1540–1596) *

Pierre Charron Pierre Charron (; 1541 – 16 November 1603, Paris), French Catholic theologian and major contributor to the new thought of the 17th century. He is remembered for his controversial form of skepticism and his separation of ethics from religion as ...

(1541–1603) *

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544, in Monfort – July 1590, in Mauvezin) was a Gascon Huguenot courtier and poet. Trained as a doctor of law, he served in the court of Henri de Navarre for most of his career. Du Bartas was celebrated acro ...

(1544–1590) *

Antoine du Verdier Antoine du Verdier (11 November 1544 – 25 September 1600),Du Verdier, Antoine (1544-160 ...

(1544–1600) *

Philippe Desportes Philippe Desportes or Desports (1546 – 5 October 1606) was a French poet.Jean Balsamo. Philippe Desports (1546-1606) Volume 62 of Actes et colloques. Editor, Contributor, Jean Balsamo. Publisher, Klincksieck, 2000 Biography Philippe Desp ...

(1546–1606) * Pierre de L'Estoile (1546–1611) *

Jean de La Ceppède Jean de La Ceppède (c. 1550 – 1623) was a French nobility, French nobleman, judge, and French poetry, poet from Aix-en-Provence. La Ceppède was a Christian poetry, Christian poet and wrote French Alexandrine, Alexandrine sonnets in Middle Fren ...

(1548–1623) *

Philippe Duplessis-Mornay Philippe de Mornay (5 November 1549 – 11 November 1623), seigneur du Plessis Marly, usually known as Du-Plessis-Mornay or Mornay Du Plessis, was a French Protestant writer and member of the anti-monarchist '' Monarchomaques''. Biography H ...

(Philippe de Mornay, called Duplessis-Mornay) (1549–1623)

1550–1599

* Benigne Poissenot (c.1550–?) *

François d'Amboise François d'Amboise (1550 – 1619) was a French jurist and writer. He was counseller to the Parlement of Brittany and advocate general to the Grand Conseil. Biography François d'Amboise was born in Paris, the son of Jean d'Amboise, ordi ...

(1550–1619) *

Odet de Turnèbe Odet de Turnèbe (23 October 1552 – 20 July 1581) was a French people, French dramatist. Biography Odet de Turnèbe was born in Paris to Greek scholar Adrien Turnèbe. He received a solid education and was known, from an early age, for his inte ...

(1552–1581) *

Jean Bertaut Jean Bertaut (1552 – 8 June 1611), French poet, was born at Caen. Life He figures with Philippe Desportes in the disdainful couplet of Boileau on Ronsard: "''Ce poëte orgueilleux, trébuché de si haut,'' ''Rendit plus retenus Desport ...

(1552–1611) *

Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné Théodore is the French version of the masculine given name Theodore. Given name * Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny (1798–1871), French landscape painter and engraver *Théodore Anne (1892–1917), French playwright, librettist, and novelist * Théod ...

(1552–1630) *

François de Malherbe François de Malherbe (, 1555 – 16 October 1628) was a French poet, critic, and translator. Life He was born in Le Locheur (near Caen, Normandie), to a family of standing, although the family's pedigree did not satisfy the heralds in terms of ...

(1552–1630) *

Jacques Davy Du Perron Jacques Davy Duperron (15 November 1556 – 6 December 1618) was a French politician and Roman Catholic cardinal. Family and Education Jacques Davy du Perron was born in Saint-Lô in Normandy, into the Davy family, of the Norman minor nobility, ...

(1556–1618) *

François Béroalde de Verville François Béroalde de Verville (27 April 1556 – 19–26 October 1626) was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. He was born in Paris, the son of Matthieu Brouard (or Brouart), called "Béroalde", a professor of Agrippa ...

(1556–1626) *

Guillaume du Vair Guillaume du Vair (7 March 1556 – 3 August 1621) was a French author and lawyer. Life He was born in Paris. After taking holy orders, he exercised only legal functions for most of his career. However, from 1617 till his death he was Bishop ...

(1556–1621) *

Jean de Sponde Jean de Sponde (''Joanes Ezponda''; 1557 in Basque – 18 March 1595) was a Baroque French poet. Biography Born at Mauléon, in what is now Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Jean de Sponde was raised in an austere Protestant family in the Basque region ...

(1557–1595) * Maximilien de Béthune, baron de Rosny, duc de Sully (1560–1641) *

Alexandre Hardy Alexandre Hardy (c. 1570/1572 – 1632) was a French dramatist, one of the most prolific of all time. He claimed to have written some six hundred plays, but only thirty-four are extant. He was born in Paris, and seems to have been connected mo ...

(1560/1570 – c.1632) *

Nicolas de Montreux Nicolas de Montreux (c. 1561–1608) was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist. Born in Sablé-sur-Sarthe, in the province of Maine, he was the son of a ''maître des requêtes'' and may have become a priest around 1585. In ...

(1561–1608) *

Pierre Matthieu Pierre Matthieu (1563–1621) was a French writer, poet, historian and dramatist. Biography Pierre Matthieu was born at Pesmes in the Haute-Saône. He studied under the Jesuits and mastered Latin, Ancient Greek and Hebrew. At the age of 19 ...

(1563–1621) *

Eustache de Refuge file:(Agen) Eustache de Refuge, seigneur de Priay et de Courcelles - Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen.jpg, Eustache de Refuge - Musée des Beaux-arts d'Agen Eustache de Refuge (1564 - September 1617), lord, seigneur de Précy-sur-Marne, Précy et de Co ...

, seigneur de Précy et de Courcelles (1564–1617) * Saint François de Sales (1567–1622) *

Honoré d'Urfé Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf (11 February 15681 June 1625) was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer. Life He was born at Marseille, the grandson of Claude d'Urfé, and was educated at the Collège de Tou ...

(1567–1625) *

Scipion Dupleix Scipion Dupleix, lord of Clarens ( Condom, 1569 – Condom, 1661), was a French historian. Dupleix came to Paris in 1605, in Queen Margaret of Valois' retinue, who appointed him as her hotel's ''maitre de requêtes''. In his position as tutor of ...

(1569–1661) * Sylvestre de Laval (1570–1616) *

Antoine de Nervèze Antoine de Nervèze (c. 1570 – after 1622) was a French nobleman and writer of novels, translations, letters and moral works at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. Biography He was most likely born in Gascony; he became ...

(c.1570–after 1622) *

Nicolas des Escuteaux Nicolas des Escuteaux (or the "sieur des Escuteaux", sometimes written "Escuteaus"; after 1570 – c. 1628) was a French novelist from the early 17th century. Life He was born into a noble family in the region around Loudun. The Reformation w ...

(after 1570 – c.1628) *

François du Souhait François du Souhait (between 1570 and 1580 – 1617 in Nancy) was a French language author (translator, novelist, poet, satirist, moral philosopher) of the late 16th and early 17th century from the Duchy of Lorraine (at the time, a sovereign cour ...

(between 1570 & 1580–1617) *

Jean Ogier de Gombaud Jean Ogier de Gombauld (1576 – 1666) was a French playwright and poet. Gombauld was born in Saint-Just-Luzac, Charente-Maritime and was a Huguenot. He was one of the original members of the Académie française. He also wrote novels, but has ...

(1570–1666) * Antoine de Balinghem (1571–1630) *

Mathurin Régnier Mathurin Régnier (December 21, 1573 – October 22, 1613) was a French satirist. Life Régnier was born in Chartres, capital city of the current department of Eure-et-Loir, in Centre-Val de Loire region . His father, Jacques Régnier, was a b ...

(1573–1613) * Nicholas Camusat (1575–1655) *

Antoine de Montchrestien Antoine de Montchrestien (, or ''Montchrétien'') (c. 15757 or 8 October 1621) was a French soldier, dramatist, adventurer and economist. Montchrestien was born in Falaise, Normandy. Son of an apothecary named Mauchrestien and orphan at a young a ...

(c.1575–1621) *

Henri, duc de Rohan Henri (II) de Rohan (21 August 157913 April 1638), Duke of Rohan and Prince of Léon, was a Breton-French soldier, writer and leader of the Huguenots. Early life Rohan was born at the Château de Blain (now a part of Blain, Loire-Atlantique), ...

(1579–1638) *

Saint Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, Congregation of the Mission, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was a Occitan people, Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poverty, poor. In 1622 Vi ...

(1581–1660) *

Jean Duvergier de Hauranne Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, the Abbé (Abbot) of Saint-Cyran, (1581 – 6 October 1643) was a French Catholic priest who introduced Jansenism into France. Life Born in the city of Bayonne to a noble family, Vergier studied theology at the Catho ...

, abbé de Saint-Cyran (1581–1643) * François Maynard (1582–1646) *

Jean-Pierre Camus Jean-Pierre Camus (November 3, 1584 – April 26, 1652) was a French bishop, preacher, and author of works of fiction and spirituality. Biography Jean-Pierre Camus was born in Paris in 1584, the son of Jean Camus, seigneur de Saint Bonnet, who ...

(1584–1652) *

Francis Garasse Francis Garasse (French: ''François Garasse''; 1585-1631) was a French Jesuit, preacher, polemicist and writer. He was the Jesuitical writer, notable, for his wit and buffoonery, but more distinguished himself by his writings which were bold, li ...

(1585–1631) *

Jean de Schelandre Jean de Schelandre (c.1585 – 18 October 1635), Seigneur de Saumazènes, was a French poet. Biography He was born about 1585 near Verdun of a Calvinist family, and studied at the university of Paris. He then joined Turenne's army in the Nether ...

(c.1585–1635) *

François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, King ...

(1588–1672) *

Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de Racan (sometimes mistakenly listed as "marquis de Racan", although he never held this title) (5 February 1589 – 21 January 1670) was a French aristocrat, soldier, poet, dramatist and (original) member of the Aca ...

(1589–1670) *

Bertrand de Loque Bertrand de Loque, author of ''Deux Traitéz: l'un de la guerre, l'autre du duel'' (Lyon: Iacob Ratoyre, 1589), Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movemen ...

(1589) *

Théophile de Viau Théophile de Viau (159025 September 1626) was a French Baroque poet and dramatist. Life Born at Clairac, near Agen in the Lot-et-Garonne and raised as a Huguenot, Théophile de Viau participated in the Huguenot rebellions in Guyenne from 1615� ...

(1590–1626) * Marc Gilbert de Varennes (1591–1660) *

François le Métel de Boisrobert François le Métel de Boisrobert (1 August 1592 – 30 March 1662) was a French poet, playwright, and courtier. Life He was born in Caen. He trained as a lawyer, later practising for a time in Rouen. He traveled to Paris in 1622 and establishe ...

(1592–1662) *

Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant Antoine Girard, sieur de Saint-Amant (September 30, 1594December 29, 1661) was a French poet. Saint-Amant was born near Rouen. His father was a merchant who had, according to his son's account, been a sailor and had commanded for 22 years "''une ...

(1594–1661) *

Jean Chapelain Jean Chapelain (4 December 1595 – 22 February 1674) was a French poet and critic during the Grand Siècle, best known for his role as an organizer and founding member of the Académie française. Chapelain acquired considerable prestige as a l ...

(1595–1674) *

Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin Jean Desmarets, Sieur de Saint-Sorlin (1595 – 28 October 1676) was a French writer and dramatist. He was a founding member, and the first to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in 1634. Biography Born in Paris, Desmarets was introduced ...

(1595–1676) *

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...

(1596–1650) *

Claude de Malleville Claude Malleville, born in Paris probably between 1594 and 1596 and died in the same city in 1647, was a French poet. He became one of the first members of the Académie Française in 1634. His life Knowledge about Claude Malleville's life was ...

(1597–1647) *

Vincent Voiture Vincent Voiture (24 February 1597 – 26 May 1648), French poet and writer of prose, was the son of a rich wine merchant of Amiens. He was introduced by a schoolfellow, the count Claude d'Avaux, to Gaston, Duke of Orléans, and accompanied him ...

(1597–1648) * Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597–1684)

Seventeenth century

1600–1649

Nicolas de Bralion Nicolas de Bralion (1600–1672) was a Oratory of Jesus, French oratorian and ecclesiastical writer who was influential on bringing various Italian ideas into France. De Bralion joined the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, Paris Oratory in 1619 and ...

(1600–1672) *

Marin le Roy de Gomberville Marin le Roy, sieur du Parc et de Gomberville (1600 – 14 June 1674) was a French poet and novelist. He was born at Paris, and at fourteen he produced a volume of poetry. At twenty he wrote a ''Discours sur l'histoire'' and at twenty-two a pa ...

(1600–1674) *

Georges de Scudéry Georges de Scudéry (22 August 1601 – 14 May 1667), the elder brother of Madeleine de Scudéry, was a French novelist, dramatist and poet. Life Georges de Scudéry was born in Le Havre, in Normandy, whither his father had moved from Provence. H ...

(1601–1667) *

François Tristan l'Hermite François l'Hermite (c. 16017 September 1655) was a French dramatist who wrote under the name Tristan l'Hermite. He was born at the Château de Soliers in the Haute Marche. Life His adventures began early, for he killed his enemy in a due ...

(1601–1655) *

Guy Patin Guy (or Guido) Patin (1601 in Hodenc-en-Bray, Oise – 30 August 1672 in Paris) was a French doctor and man of letters. Patin was doyen (or dean) of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris (1650–1652) and professor in the Collège de France start ...

(1601–1672) * Jean de Bernieres-Louvigny (1602–1659) *

Charles Sorel Charles Sorel, sieur de Souvigny (c. 1602 – 7 March 1674) was a French novelist and general writer. Life Very little is known of his life except that in 1635 he was historiographer of France. He wrote on science, history and religion, ...

(1602–1674) *

Charles Cotin Charles Cotin or Abbé Cotin (1604 – December 1681) was a French abbé, philosopher and poet. He was made a member of the Académie française on 7 January 1655. Cotin was born and died in Paris. He was a scholar of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, an ...

(1604–1682) *

Jean Mairet Jean (de) Mairet (10 May 160431 January 1686) was a classical french dramatist who wrote both tragedies and comedies. Life He was born at Besançon, and went to Paris to study at the Collège des Grassins about 1625. In that year he produced ...

(1604–1686) *

François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac (4 August 1604 in Paris – 27 July 1676) was a French author and cleric. The father of François Hédelin was Claude Hédelin, a lawyer at the Parliament, and his mother Catherine Paré, the daughter of the ...

(1604–1676) *

Pierre du Ryer Pierre du Ryer (c.1606 – 6 November 1658) was a French dramatist. Life and works Du Ryer was born in Paris in about 1606. His early comedies are loosely modelled on those of Alexandre Hardy, but after the production of the ''Cid'' (1636) he b ...

(1605–1658) *

Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy Charles Coypeau (16 October 1605 Paris – 29 October 1677, Paris) was a French musician and burlesque poet. In the mid-1630s he began using the ''nom de plume'' D'Assouci or Dassoucy. Life From the time he was eight or nine, Charles Coypeau b ...

(1605–1675) *

Jean François Sarrazin Jean François Sarrazin (c. 1611 – 5 December 1654), or Sarasin, was a French writer. Biography Sarrazin was born at Hermanville, near Caen, the son of Roger Sarasin, treasurer-general at Caen. He was educated at Caen, and later settled in ...

(1605–1654) *

Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...

(1606–1684) *

Antoine Gombaud Antoine Gombaud, ''alias'' Chevalier de Méré, (1607 – 29 December 1684) was a French writer, born in Poitou.E. Feuillâtre (Editor), ''Les Épistoliers Du XVIIe Siècle. Avec des Notices biographiques, des Notices littéraires, des Notes ex ...

, chevalier de Méré (1607–1685) *

Madeleine de Scudéry Madeleine de Scudéry (15 November 1607 – 2 June 1701), often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry, was a French writer. Her works also demonstrate such comprehensive knowledge of ancient history that it is suspected she had received inst ...

(1607–1701) *

Jean Rotrou Jean Rotrou (21 August 1609 – 28 June 1650) was a French poet and tragedian. Life Rotrou was born at Dreux, city of the current department of Eure-et-Loir, in Centre-Val de Loire region. He studied at Dreux and at Paris, and, though three years ...

(1609–1650) *

Paul Scarron Paul Scarron (c. 1 July 1610 in Paris – 6 October 1660 in Paris) (a.k.a. Monsieur Scarron) was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist, born in Paris. Though his precise birth date is unknown, he was baptized on 4 July 1610. Scarron was the fi ...

(1610–1660) * François-Eudes de Mézeray (1610–1683) * Charles de Saint-Evremond (c.1610–1703) *

Antoine Arnauld Antoine Arnauld (6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patristics. Contem ...

(1612–1694) *

Isaac de Benserade Isaac de Benserade (; baptized 5 November 161310 October 1691) was a French poet. Born in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy, his family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 ''livres''. He began his liter ...

(1612–1691) *

Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...

(1613–1679) * François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) *

Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède (1609 or 1610 – 1663) was a French novelist and dramatist. He was born at the Château of Tolgou in Salignac-Eyvigues (Dordogne). After studying at Toulouse, he came to Paris and entered the reg ...

(1614–1663) *

Georges de Brébeuf Georges de Brébeuf () (1618 – 1661) was a French poet and translator best known for his verse translation of Lucan's ''Pharsalia'' (1654) which was warmly received by Pierre Corneille, but which was ridiculed by Nicolas Boileau in his ''Art p ...

(1618–1661) *

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy (13 April 1618 – 9 April 1693), commonly known as Bussy-Rabutin, was a French memoirist. He was the cousin and frequent correspondent of Madame de Sévigné. Born at Epiry, near Autun, he represented a famil ...

, called Bussy-Rabutin (1618–1693) *

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...

(Hector-Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac) (1619–1655) *

Antoine Furetière Antoine Furetière (28 December 161914 May 1688) was a French scholar, writer, and lexicographer, known best for his satirical novel ''Scarron's City Romance''. He was expelled from the Académie Française for seeking to publish his own French ...

(1619–1688) *

Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux Gédéon Tallemant, Sieur des Réaux (7 November 1619 – 6 November 1692) was a French writer known for his ''Historiettes'', a collection of short biographies. Biography Born at La Rochelle, he belonged to a wealthy middle-class Huguenot fa ...

(1619–1692) *

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

(1621–1695) *

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

(Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (1622–1673) *

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...

(1623–1662) *

Jean Renaud de Segrais Jean Regnault de Segrais (22 August 1624, Caen – 25 March 1701) was a French poet and novelist born in Caen. He was elected a member of the Académie française in 1662. {{DEFAULTSORT:Regnault De Segrais, Jean 1624 births 1701 death ...

(1624–1701) *

Paul Pellisson Paul Pellisson (30 October 1624 – 7 February 1693) was a French author. Pellisson was born in Béziers, of a distinguished Calvinist family. He studied law at Toulouse, and practised at the bar of Castres. Going to Paris with letters of intr ...

(1624–1693) *

Thomas Corneille Thomas Corneille (20 August 1625 – 8 December 1709) was a French lexicographer and dramatist. Biography Born in Rouen some nineteen years after his brother Pierre, the "great Corneille", Thomas's skill as a poet seems to have shown itself e ...

(1625–1709) *

Samuel Chappuzeau Samuel Chappuzeau (16 June 1625, Paris – 31 August 1701) was a French scholar, author, poet and playwright whose best-known work today is ''Le Théâtre François'', a description of French Theatre in the seventeenth century. Chappuzeau's pl ...

(1625–1701) *

Madame de Sévigné Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

(Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné) (1626–1696) *

Laurent Drelincourt Laurent Drelincourt (1626–1681) was son of the French Reformed Church theologian Charles Drelincourt (1595–1669), who was a French Protestant divine. Laurent also was a theologian, who later became a pastor, and was the author of ''Sonnets c ...

(1626–1680) * Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704) *

Gabriel-Joseph de La Vergne, comte de Guilleragues Gabriel-Joseph de Lavergne, comte de Guilleragues (1628–1684), was a French politician of the 17th century. For a time, he was secretary of the King's Chamber, and he also director of the ''Gazette de France''. In 1677, he was named ambassador ...

(1628–1685) *

Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...

(1628–1703) *

Pierre Daniel Huet image:Portret van Pierre-Daniel Huet Petrus Daniel Huetius (titel op object), RP-P-BI-7523.jpg, P. D. Huetius Pierre Daniel Huet (; la, Huetius; 8 February 1630 – 26 January 1721) was a French churchman and scholar, Editing, editor of the Delph ...

(1630–1721) *

Louis Bourdaloue Louis Bourdaloue (20 August 1632 – 13 May 1704) was a French Jesuit and preacher. Biography He was born in Bourges. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and was appointed successively professor of rhetoric, philosophy and ...

(1632–1704) *

Esprit Fléchier Esprit Fléchier (10 June 163216 February 1710) was a French preacher and author, Bishop of Nîmes from 1687 to 1710. Biography Fléchier was born at Pernes-les-Fontaines, in today's ''département'' of Vaucluse, in the then Comtat Venaissin, ...

(1632–1710) *

Jacques Pradon Jacques Pradon, often called Nicolas Pradon (1632 – 14 January 1698), was a French playwright. Early in his career, he was helped by Pierre Corneille and was introduced to the salons at the Hôtel de Nevers and the Hôtel de Bouillon by Madam ...

(1632–1698) *

Madame de Villedieu Marie-Catherine de Villedieu, born Marie-Catherine Desjardins and generally referred to as Madame de Villedieu (1640 – 20 October 1683) was a French writer of plays, novels and short fiction. Largely forgotten or eclipsed by other writers of th ...

(Marie-Catherine-Hortence Desjardins, marquise de Villedieu) (1632–1683) *

Madame de Lafayette Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette (baptized 18 March 1634 – 25 May 1693), better known as Madame de La Fayette, was a French writer; she authored ''La Princesse de Clèves'', France's first historical novel and one ...

(Marie-Madeleine, comtesse de La Fayette) (1634–1693) * Pierre Thomas, sieur du Fossé (1634–1698) *

Philippe Quinault Philippe Quinault (; 3 June 1635 – 26 November 1688), French dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris. Biography Quinault was educated by the liberality of François Tristan l'Hermite, the author of ''Marianne''. Quinault's first play w ...

(1635–1688) *

Nicolas Boileau Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

(1636–1711) *

Edmé Boursault Edmé Boursault (October 163815 September 1701) was a French dramatist and miscellaneous writer, born at Mussy l'Evéque, now Mussy-sur-Seine (Aube). Biography On Boursault's first arrival in Paris in 1651 his language was limited to Burgundia ...

(1638–1701) *

Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières Antoinette Du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières (January 1, 1638 – February 17, 1694) was a French poet. Early life and education Antoinette Du Ligier de la Garde was born in Paris, January 1, 1638. She was the daughter of Melchior du Ligier, si ...

(1638–1694) *

Nicolas Malebranche Nicolas Malebranche ( , ; 6 August 1638 – 13 October 1715) was a French Oratorian Catholic priest and rationalist philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes, in order to demonstrate the ...

(1638–1715) *

Jean Donneau de Visé Jean Donneau de Visé (1638 – 8 July 1710) was a French journalist, royal historian ("historiographe du roi"), playwright and publicist. He was founder of the literary, arts and society gazette "le Mercure galant" (founded in 1672) an ...

(1638–1710) *

Philippe de Courcillon, marquis de Dangeau Philippe is a masculine sometimes feminin given name, cognate to Philip. It may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince Philippe, Count o ...

(1638–1720) *

Claude Estiennot de la Serre Claude Estiennot de la Serre (or de la Serrée) (17 February 1639 – 20 June 1699) was a French Benedictine scholar of the Congregation of Saint-Maur. Life He was born at Toutry. He joined the Benedictines at Vendôme and was professed there i ...

(1639–1699) *

Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu (1639 – 27 June 1720), French poet and wit, was born at Fontenay, Normandy. His father, ''maître des Comptes'' of Rouen, sent him to study at the Collège de Navarre. Guillaume early showed the wit that was to di ...

(1639–1720) *

César Vichard de Saint-Réal César Vichard de Saint-Réal (1639–1692) was a French polyglot. He was born in Chambéry, Savoy, but educated in Lyon by the Jesuits. He used to work in the royal library with Antoine Varillas. This French historiographer influenced the way ...

(1639–1692) *

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...

(1639–1699) * Claude de Fleury (1640–1723) *

Louis Moréri Louis Moréri (25 March 1643 – 10 July 1680) was a French priest and encyclopedist. Life Moréri was born in 1643 in Bargemon, a village in the ancient province of Provence. His great-grandfather, Joseph Chatranet, a native of Dijon, had sett ...

(1643–1680) *

Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (1644, Montargis – 8 May 1712, Paris) was a French novelist, journalist, pamphleteer and memorialist. His abundant output includes short stories, gallant letters, tales of historical love affairs (''Les Intrigue ...

(1644–1712) *

Anne de La Roche-Guilhem Anne de La Roche-Guilhem or La Roche-Guilhen (July 24, 1644, Rouen – 1707 or 1710, England) was a French writer and translator. Biography Anne de La Roche-Guilhem was the daughter of Charles de Guilhen and Marie-Anne d'Azemar. Through her moth ...

(1644–1707) *

Jean de La Bruyère Jean de La Bruyère (, , ; 16 August 1645 – 11 May 1696) was a French philosopher and moralist, who was noted for his satire. Early years Jean de La Bruyère was born in Paris, in today's Essonne ''département'', in 1645. His family was mid ...

(1645–1696) *

Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert Pierre le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert or Boisguillebert (; 17 February 164610 October 1714) was a French lawmaker and a Jansenist, one of the inventors of the notion of an economic market. Early life He was born at Rouen of an ancient noble fam ...

( c.1646–1714) *

Antoine Galland Antoine Galland (; 4 April 1646 – 17 February 1715) was a French orientalist and archaeologist, most famous as the first European translator of '' One Thousand and One Nights'', which he called ''Les mille et une nuits''. His version of the t ...

(1646–1715) *

Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. A Huguenot, Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic in 1681 because of religious persecution in France. He is best known for his '' Historica ...

(1647–1706) *

Joseph Anthelmi Joseph Anthelmi (Antelmi) (25 July 1648 at Fréjus – 21 June 1697 at Fréjus) was a French ecclesiastical historian. Life Several of his ancestors had occupied canonries in Fréjus, the history and traditions of which they had investigated ...

(1648–1697)

1650–1699

Madame d'Aulnoy Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy (1650/1651 – 14 January 1705), also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French author known for her literary fairy tales. When she termed her works ''contes de fées'' (fairy tales), sh ...

(Marie-Catherine le Jumelle de Barneville, Baronne d'Aulnoy) (1651–1705) *

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon François () is a French language, French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis (given name), Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of ...

(1651–1715) * Louis Du Four de Longuerue (1652–1733) *

Charlotte-Rose de Caumont La Force Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force or Mademoiselle de La Force (1654–1724) was a French novelist and poet. Her best-known work was her 1698 fairy tale ''Persinette'' which was adapted by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 as the story ''Rapunzel''. ...

(Mademoiselle de La Force) (1650–1724) *

Louis Legendre Louis Legendre (22 May 1752 – 13 December 1797) was a French politician of the Revolution period. Early activities Born at Versailles, he was keeping a butcher's shop in Saint Germain, Paris, by 1789. He was an ardent supporter of the ideas ...

(1655–1733) *

Jean-François Regnard Jean-François Regnard (7 February 1655 – 4 September 1709), "the most distinguished, after Molière, of the comic poets of the seventeenth century", was a dramatist, born in Paris, who is equally famous now for the travel diary he kept of a vo ...

(1655–1709) *

Jean Galbert de Campistron Jean Galbert de Campistron (3 August 1656 – 11 May 1723) was a French dramatist. Biography Campistron was born in Toulouse, France to a noble family. At the age of seventeen he was wounded in a duel and sent to Paris. Here he became an ardent d ...

(1656–1723) * Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) * Louis ''(or Jean)'' de Mailly (1657-1724) *

Henri de Boulainvilliers Henri de Boulainvilliers (; 21 October 1658, Saint-Saire, Normandy – 23 January 1722, Paris) was a French nobleman, writer and historian. He was educated at the College of Juilly; he served in the army until 1697. Primarily remembered as an ear ...

(1658–1712) *

François Armand Gervaise François Armand Gervaise (1660–1761) was a French Discalced Carmelite and historian. Life Gervaise was born at Paris. Having been nominated prior of a convent, he chanced to meet Bossuet, who recognized in him a learned writer, and an eloq ...

(1660–1761) *

Charles Rollin Charles Rollin (January 30, 1661 in Paris - December 14, 1741 in Paris) was a French historian and educator, whose popularity in his time combined with becoming forgotten by later generations makes him an epithet, applied to historians such as J ...

(1661–1741) *

Florent Carton Dancourt Florent Carton aka Dancourt (1 November 16617 December 1725), French dramatist and actor, was born at Fontainebleau. He belonged to a family of rank, and his parents entrusted his education to Pere de la Rue, a Jesuit, who made earnest efforts ...

(1661–1725) *

Jean-François Foucquet Jean-François Foucquet S.J., also Jean-François Fouquet (12 March 1665 – 14 March 1741), was a Burgundy French Jesuit, bishop and scientist who was active in the Jesuit China missions for 22 years. He also was Titular Bishop of ''Eleutherop ...

(1665–1741) *

Alain-René Lesage Alain-René Lesage (; 6 May 166817 November 1747; older spelling Le Sage) was a French novelist and playwright. Lesage is best known for his comic novel '' The Devil upon Two Sticks'' (1707, ''Le Diable boiteux''), his comedy ''Turcaret'' (170 ...

(1668–1747) *

Jacques Bouillart Jacques Bouillart (1669 – 11 December 1726) was a Benedictine monk of the Congregation of St.-Maur. Bouillart was born in the Diocese of Chartres. He professed at the Monastery of St. Faron de Meaux in 1687. He was the author of ''Histoire d ...

(1669–1726) *

Jean-Baptiste Rousseau Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (6 April 1671 – 17 March 1741) was a French playwright and poet, particularly noted for his cynical epigrams. Biography Rousseau was born in Paris, the son of a shoemaker, and was well educated. As a young man, he gai ...

(1670–1741) *

Jean-Baptiste Dubos Jean-Baptiste Dubos (; 14 December 1670 – 23 March 1742), also referred to as l'Abbé Du Bos, was a French author. He was also a diplomat and an art critic. Life Dubos was born in Beauvais. He was educated in Paris and received a Master of Arts ...

(1670–1742) *

Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (13 January 1674 – 17 June 1762) was a French poet and tragedy, tragedian. Biography Crébillon was born in Dijon, where his father, Melchior Jolyot, was Civil law notary, notary-royal. Having been educated at the ...

(Crébillon père) (1674–1762) *

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, GE (16 January 16752 March 1755), was a French soldier, diplomat, and memoirist. He was born in Paris at the Hôtel Selvois, 6 rue Taranne (demolished in 1876 to make way for the Boulevard Saint-Germain). T ...

(1675–1755) *

Jean-François Boyer Jean-François Boyer (12 March 1675 in Paris – 20 August 1755 in Versailles), was a French bishop, best known for having been a vehement opponent of Jansenism and the Philosophe school. Life Boyer was a preacher, and the bishop of Mirepo ...

(1675–1755) *

Philippe Néricault Destouches Philippe Néricault Destouches (9 April 1680 – 4 July 1754) was a French playwright who wrote 22 plays. Biography Destouches was born at Tours, in today's department of Indre-et-Loire. When he was nineteen years of age, he became secretary to ...

(1680–1754) * Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin (Madame de Tencin) (1681–1749) *

Jérôme Besoigne Jérôme Besoigne (1686 in Paris – 1763) was a prominent Jansenist apologist and oppositionist to the Bull "Unigenitus." Biography Besoigne was ordained in 1715 and received a doctorate at the Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne ( ...

(1686–1763) *

Marivaux Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing nume ...

(Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux) (1688–1763) *

Alexis Piron Alexis Piron (9 July 1689 – 21 January 1773) was a French epigrammatist and dramatist. Life He was born at Dijon, where his father, Aimé Piron, was an apothecary. Piron senior wrote verse in the Burgundian language. Alexis began life as c ...

(1689–1773) *

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 principa ...

(Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu) (1689–1755) *

Louis Petit de Bachaumont Louis Petit de Bachaumont () (June 2, 1690 – April 29, 1771) was a French writer, whose historical interest has been connected largely to his alleged role in the gossipy '' Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lett ...

(1690–1771) *

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

(François-Marie Arouet) (1694–1778) * René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d' Argenson (1694–1757) *

Françoise de Graffigny Françoise de Graffigny (''née'' Françoise d'Issembourg du Buisson d'Happoncourt; 11 February 1695 – 12 December 1758), better known as Madame de Graffigny, was a French novelist, playwright and salon hostess. Initially famous as the author o ...

(1695–1758) *

Antoine François Prévost Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

(Antoine Francois Prevost d'Exiles) a/k/a Abbé Prévost (1697–1763) *

Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand (25 September 1696 – 23 September 1780) was a French hostess and patron of the arts. Life Madame du Deffand was born at the Château de Chamrond, in Ligny-en-Brionnais, a village near Charolle ...

(1697–1780) * Denis-François Camusat (1697–1732)

Eighteenth century

1700–1749

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 ...

(1704–1772) *

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. H ...

(Crébillon, fils) (1707–1777) *

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent Fr ...

(Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon) (1707–1788) *

Julien Offray de La Mettrie Julien Offray de La Mettrie (; November 23, 1709 – November 11, 1751) was a French physician and philosopher, and one of the earliest of the French materialists of the Enlightenment. He is best known for his 1747 work '' L'homme machine'' ('' ...

(1709–1751) *

Gabriel Bonnot de Mably Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (Grenoble, 14 March 1709 – 2 April 1785 in Paris), sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher, historian, and writer, who for a short time served in the diplomatic corps. He was a popular 18th-century ...

(1709–1785) *

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset (August 29, 1709 – June 16, 1777) was a French poet and dramatist, best known for his poem ''Vert-Vert''. Life He was born at Amiens. During the last twenty-five years of his life, he regretted the frivolity of his ...

(1709–1777) *

Jean-Jacques Lefranc, marquis de Pompignan Jean-Jacques Lefranc (also Le Franc), Marquis de Pompignan (10 August 1709 – 1 November 1784) was a French man of letters and erudition, who published a considerable output of theatrical work, poems, literary criticism, and polemics; treatises o ...

(1709–1784) *

Charles-Simon Favart Charles Simon Favart (13 November 1710 – 12 May 1792) was a French playwright and theatre director. The Salle Favart in Paris is named after him. Biography Born in Paris, the son of a pastry-cook, he was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, a ...

(1710–1792) *

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 Revolu ...

(1712–1778) *

Denis 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 promine ...

(1713–1784) *

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (; ; 30 September 17142 August or 3 August 1780) was a French philosopher and epistemologist, who studied in such areas as psychology and the philosophy of the mind. Biography He was born at Grenoble into a legal fam ...

(1714–1780) *

Marie Jeanne Riccoboni Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (25 October 1713 in Paris - 7 December 1792 in Paris), whose maiden name was Laboras de Mézières, was a French actress and novelist. Early years She was born in Paris in 1713. Career In 1735, she married Antoine Fran ...

(Madame Riccoboni) (1714–1792) *

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 ...

(1715–1771) * Vauvenargues (Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues) (1715–1747) * François-André-Adrien Pluquet (1716–1790) *

Jean-François de Saint-Lambert Jean-François is a French given name. Notable people bearing the given name include: * Jean-François Carenco (born 1952), French politician * Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist * Jean-François Clervoy (born 1958), Fre ...

(1716–1803) *

Louis Carrogis Carmontelle Louis Carrogis Carmontelle (b. Paris, 15 August 1717 – d. Paris, 26 December 1806) was a French dramatist, painter, architect, set designer, author, and designer of one of the earliest examples of the French landscape garden, Parc Moncea ...

(1717–1806 *

Jean Le Rond 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 ...

(1717–1783) *

Michel-Jean Sedaine Michel-Jean Sedaine (2 June 1719 – 17 May 1797) was a French dramatist and librettist, especially noted for his librettos for '' opéras comiques'', in which he took an important and influential role in the advancement of the genre from th ...

(1719–1797) *

Antoine Henri de Bérault-Bercastel Antoine Henri de Bérault-Bercastel (1720–1794) was a French priest and Catholic historian. Biographical details Born 22 November 1720, at Briey, Lorraine in France. At an early age he entered the Society of Jesus, but left it after his ordinat ...

(1720–c.1794) *

Jacques Cazotte Jacques Cazotte (; 17 October 1719 – 25 September 1792) was a French author. Life Born in Dijon, 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 Mar ...

(1720–1792) * Denis Dominique Cardonne (1721–1783) * Tiphaigne de la Roche (Charles-François Tiphaigne de la Roche) (1722–1774) *

Baron d'Holbach Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (; 8 December 1723 – 21 January 1789), was a French-German philosopher, encyclopedist, writer, and prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was born Paul Heinrich Dietrich in Edesheim, near Land ...

(Paul Henri Dietrich, baron d'Holbach) (1723–1789) *

Jean-François Marmontel Jean-François Marmontel (11 July 1723 – 31 December 1799) was a French historian, writer and a member of the Encyclopédistes movement. Biography He was born of poor parents at Bort, Limousin (today in Corrèze). After studying with th ...

(1723–1799) *

Casanova Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, (''Story of My Life''), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about the c ...

a/k/a Jacques Casanova de Seingalt (1725–1798) *

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne ( ; ; 10 May 172718 March 1781), commonly known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Originally considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an early advocate for economic libe ...

(1727–1781) *

Jean Dussaulx Jean-Joseph Dusaulx, (28 December 1728, in Chartres – 16 March 1799, in Paris) was a French politician during the French Revolution. He was friendly with Jean Sylvain Bailly, the mayor. In February 1792 he was elected as a member of the "Consei ...

(1728–1799) *

Nicolas Bricaire de la Dixmerie Nicolas Bricaire de la Dixmerie (c. 1730 – November 26, 1791), French man of letters, was born at Lamothe (Haute-Marne). While still young he removed to Paris, where the rest of his life was spent in literary activity. His numerous works include ...

(c.1730–1791) *

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist ...

(1732–1799) *

Jacques Clinchamps de Malfilâtre Jacques Clinchamps de Malfilâtre (8 October 1732 – 6 March 1767) was a French poet. Works *Le Soleil fixe au milieu des planètes', 1759 *''Narcisse dans l’île de Vénus'', 1769 (poem in 4 chants, published posthumously) *' *Le Génie de ...

(1733–1767) *

Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, born Nicolas-Edme Rétif or Nicolas-Edme Restif (; 23 October 1734 – 3 February 1806), also known as Rétif, was a French novelist. The term '' retifism'' for shoe fetishism was named after him (an early nov ...

(1734–1806) * Jean-Benjamin François de la Borde (1734–1794) *

Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne Charles-Joseph Lamoral, 7th Prince de Ligne in French; in German Karl-Joseph Lamoral 7. Fürst von Ligne (also known as Karl Fürst von Ligne or ''Fürst de Ligne''): (23 May 1735 – 13 December 1814) was a field marshal, inhaber of an infantr ...

(1735–1814) *

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (also called Bernardin de St. Pierre) (19 January 1737, in Le Havre – 21 January 1814, in Éragny, Val-d'Oise) was a French writer and botanist. He is best known for his 1788 novel ''Paul et Virginie'', n ...

(1737–1814) *

Jacques Delille The French poet Jacques Delille (; 22 June 1738 at Aigueperse in Auvergne – 1 May 1813, in Paris) came to national prominence with his translation of Virgil’s Georgics and made an international reputation with his didactic poem on gardening. ...

(1738–1813) *

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 ...

(1739–1803) *

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...

(Donatien Alphonse François de Sade) (1740–1814) *

Isabelle de Charrière Isabelle de Charrière (20 October 174027 December 1805), known as Belle van Zuylen in the Netherlands, née Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken, and adameIsabelle de Charrière (married name) elsewhere, was a Dutch and ...

a/k/a Belle de Zuylen (1740–1805) * Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos (1741–1803) *

Condorcet Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (; 17 September 1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher and mathematician. His ideas, including support for a liberal economy, free and equal pu ...

(Marie Jean Antoine Caritat, marquis de Condorcet) (1744–1794) * Gabriel Brizard (c1744–1793) * André-Samuel-Michel Cantwell (1744–1802) * Étienne Pélabon (1745–1808) * Jean Antoine Roucher (1745–1794) *

Jean-Sifrein Maury Jean-Sifrein Maury (; 26 June 1746 – 10 May 1817) was a French cardinal, archbishop of Paris, and former bishop of Montefiascone. Biography The son of a cobbler, he was born at Valréas in the Comtat-Venaissin, the enclave within France that ...

(Abbé Maury) (1746–1817) *

Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuveau Joseph Alexandre Victor d'Hupay (1746–1818) was a French writer and philosopher. He is known for being perhaps the first writer to use the term ''communism'' in its modern sense. He wished to transform the ideals of the Enlightenment philosopher ...

(1746–1818) *

Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin, comtesse de Genlis Stéphanie is a feminine French feminine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (born 1984), Belgian noble; wife of Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg * Princess Stéphani ...

(Madame de Genlis) (1746–1830) *

Armand Louis de Gontaut Armand Louis de Gontaut (), duc de Lauzun, later duc de Biron, and usually referred to by historians of the French Revolution simply as Biron (13 April 174731 December 1793) was a French soldier and politician, known for the part he played in t ...

, duc de Biron, duc de Lauzun (1747–1793) *

Olympe de Gouges Olympe de Gouges (; born Marie Gouze; 7 May 17483 November 1793) was a French playwright and political activist whose writings on women's rights and abolitionism reached a large audience in various countries. She began her career as a playwright ...

(1748–1793) *

Pierre-Louis Ginguené Pierre-Louis Ginguené (25 April 1748 – 16 November 1816) was a French author. Biography He was born at Rennes, in Brittany, and educated at a Jesuit college there. He came to Paris in 1772, and wrote criticisms for the ''Mercure de France''. ...

(1748–1815) *

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau (; 9 March 17492 April 1791) was a leader of the early stages of the French Revolution. A noble, he had been involved in numerous scandals before the start of the Revolution in 1789 that had left his re ...

(1749–1791) *

Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois (; 19 June 1749 – 8 June 1796) was a French actor, dramatist, essayist, and French Revolution, revolutionary. He was a member of the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror and, while he saved Madam ...

(1749–1796)

1750–1799

Georges Henri Victor Collot Victor Collot, in full Georges Henri Victor Collot (21 March 1750 – 15 May 1805), was a French military officer who served in the New World in various capacities, among them as Governor of Guadeloupe. He is best known for his ex ...

(1750-1805) *

Nicolas Joseph Laurent Gilbert Nicolas-Joseph-Laurent Gilbert (December 15, 1750 – November 16, 1780) was a French poet born at Fontenoy-le-Château, Vosges, Lorraine. Having completed his education at the college of Dole, he devoted himself for a time to a half-scholastic, ...

(1751–1780) * Évariste de Forges de Parny (1753–1814) *

Joseph de Maistre Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (; 1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat who advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his clos ...

(1753–1821) *

Jean Armand Charlemagne Jean Armand Charlemagne (born Bourget (Seine) 30 November 1753 – died Paris 6 March 1838) was a French dramatic author. Originally intended for the church, he turned first to being a lawyers clerk and then a soldier. He served in the American ...

(1753-1838) * Marie Thérèse Péroux d’Abany (1753–1821) *

Joseph Joubert Joseph Joubert (; 6 May 1754 in Montignac, Périgord – 4 May 1824 in Paris) was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his ''Pensées'' (''Thoughts''), which were published posthumously. Biography From the age of fo ...

(1754–1824) *

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (March 6, 1755 in the château of Florian, near Sauve, Gard – September 13, 1794 in Sceaux) was a French poet, novelist and fabulist. Life Florian's mother, a Spanish lady named Gilette de Salgues, died when ...

(1754–1794) *

Jacques Pierre Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), who assumed the name of de Warville (an English version of "d'Ouarville", a hamlet in the village of Lèves where his father owned property), was a leading member of the Girondins dur ...

a/k/a Jean-Pierre Brissot (1754–1793) *

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

(1754–1838) * Constantin François de Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney (1757–1820) *

William Vincent Barré William Vincent Barré (–1829), was a German-born French translator and author mainly notable for his writings on Napoleon. Biography Barré was born in Germany about the year 1760 of French Protestant parents, who had left their native countr ...

(c.1760–1829) * Victoire Babois (1760–1839) *

Adelaide Filleul, Marquise de Souza-Botelho Adélaïde-Emilie (sometimes Émilie-Adélaïde) Filleul, Marquise de Souza-Botelho (14 May 176119 April 1836) was a French writer. Biography She was born in Paris. Her mother, Marie Irène Cathérine de Buisson, daughter of the Seigneur de Lon ...

(Madame de Souza) (1761–1836) *

André Chénier André Marie Chénier (; 30 October 176225 July 1794) was a French poet of Greek and Franco-Levantine origin, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precur ...

(1762–1794) * Claude-François-Xavier Mercier de Compiègne (1763–1800) *

Joseph Chénier Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

(1764–1811) *

Barbara Juliana, Baroness von Krüdener Barbara may refer to: People * Barbara (given name) * Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter * Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer * Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously ...

(Madame de Krüdener) (1764–1824) *

Madame de Staël Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ...

(1766–1817) *

Las Cases Emmanuel-Augustin-Dieudonné-Joseph, comte de Las Cases (21 June 176615 May 1842) was a French atlas-maker and author, famed for an admiring book about Napoleon, ''Le Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène'' ("The Memorial of Saint Helena"). Life and caree ...

(Emmanuel-Augustin-Dieudonné, comte de Las Cases) (1766–1842) *

Benjamin Constant Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (; 25 October 1767 – 8 December 1830), or simply Benjamin Constant, was a French people, Franco-Switzerland, Swiss political thinker, activist and writer on political theory and religion. A committed repub ...

(Benjamin Constant de Rebecque) (1767–1830) * Joseph Fiévée (1767–1839) *

François-René de Chateaubriand François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who had a notable influence on French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocrati ...

(1768–1848) *

Étienne Pivert de Senancour 238px, right Étienne-Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Ignace Pivert de Senancour (; 16 November 1770, in Paris – 10 January 1846, in Saint-Cloud) was a French essayist and philosopher, remembered primarily for his epistolary novel '' Obermann''. Life Mu ...

(1770–1846) *

Sophie de Renneville Sophie de Renneville or Madame de Renneville, was the pen name of Sophie de Senneterre, who was born in Senneterre, Caen, France in 1772 and died in Paris in 1822 at 50. She was a writer, editor and journalist. Biography Sophie was born the Ma ...

(1772–1822) *

Charles-Jean Baptiste Bonnin Bonnin, Charles-Jean Baptiste (4 October 1772 in France – October 1846) Progressive French thinker, theorist, and framer of the modern discipline of Public Administration. From Bonnin's written work a great political and intellectual activity ...

(1772–1846) *

Paul Louis Courier Paul Louis Courier (; 4 January 177210 April 1825), French Hellenist and political writer, was born in Paris. Life Brought up on his father's estate of Méré in Touraine, he conceived a bitter aversion for the nobility, which seemed to strengt ...

de Méré (1772–1825) *

René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt René ('' born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the femin ...

(1773–1844) *

Sophie Ristaud Cottin Sophie Cottin (22 March 1770 – 25 August 1807) was a French writer whose novels were popular in the 19th century, and were translated into several different languages. Biography Marie Sophie Ristaud (sometimes spelt Risteau) was born in March ...

(Madame Cottin) (1773–1807) *

Eugène François Vidocq Eugène-François Vidocq (; 24 July 1775 – 11 May 1857) was a French criminal turned criminalist, whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe and Honoré de Balzac. The former criminal became the founder a ...

(1775–1857) *

Claire de Duras Claire, Duchess of Duras (née de Kersaint; 1777–1828) was a French writer best known for her 1823 novel called '' Ourika'', which examines issues of racial and sexual equality, and which inspired the 1969 John Fowles novel ''The French Lieutena ...

(Madame de Duras) (1777–1828) * Ambroise Rendu (1778–1860) *

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 ...

(1780–1844) *

Pierre-Jean de Béranger Pierre-Jean de Béranger (19 August 178016 July 1857) was a prolific France, French poet and Chansonnier (singer), chansonnier (songwriter), who enjoyed great popularity and influence in France during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the ...

(1780–1857) * Victor de Bonald (1780–1871) * Aimé Martin (1781-1844) *

Félicité Robert de Lamennais Félicité may refer to: Geography * Félicité (island), Seychelles * Sainte-Félicité (disambiguation) **Sainte-Félicité, Chaudière-Appalaches, Quebec **Sainte-Félicité, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Quebec People *Félicité Carrel, Italian mounta ...

(1782–1854) *

Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, baron de Barante Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière, baron de Barante (June 10, 1782November 22, 1866) was a French statesman and historian. Associated with the center-left, he was described in France as the first man to call himself, "without any embarrassment ...

(1782–1866) *

Victor Henri-Joseph Brahain Ducange Victor Henri-Joseph Brahain du Cange (or Ducange) (November 24, 1783October 15, 1833) was a French novelist and dramatist, born at the Hague, where his father was secretary to the French embassy. Dismissed from the civil service at the Restoration, ...

(1783–1833) *

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...

(Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) (''

The Red and the Black ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (; meaning ''The Red and the Black'') is a historical psychological novel in two volumes by Stendhal, published in 1830. It chronicles the attempts of a provincial young man to rise socially beyond his modest upbringing t ...

'', 1830) *

Pierre-Antoine Lebrun Pierre-Antoine Lebrun (; 29 November 1785 – 27 May 1873) was a French poet. Biography Lebrun was born in Paris. An ''Ode à la grande armée'', mistaken at the time for the work of Écouchard Lebrun, attracted Napoleon's attention, and secur ...

(1785–1873) *

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (20 June 1786 – 23 July 1859) was a French poet and novelist. She was born in Douai. Following the French Revolution, her father's business was ruined, and she traveled with her mother to Guadeloupe in search of fi ...

(1786–1859) *

Alphonse Rabbe Alphonse Rabbe (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, 1784 (?) – Paris, 31 December 1829) was a French writer, historian, critic, and journalist. Life Rabbe was a journalist, writing mostly about the arts. He also published a number of works of popularised ...

(1786–1829) *

Élise Voïart Élise Voïart, (1786-1866) was a writer and translator from Nancy, France, specializing in historical works, fiction and children's books. She held literary salons at her home when she lived near Paris. Biography Élise was born 10 February 1 ...

(1786–1866) *

François Guizot François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848. A conservative liberal who opposed the a ...

(1787–1874) *

Alexandre Guiraud Pierre Marie Jeanne Alexandre Thérèse Guiraud better known as Alexandre Guiraud (24 December 1788 – 24 February 1847) was a French poet, dramatic author and novelist. Biography Guiraud was born in Limoux, Aude, the son of a rich cloth mercha ...

(1788–1847) *

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...

(1790–1869) *

Victor Cousin Victor Cousin (; 28 November 179214 January 1867) was a French philosopher. He was the founder of "eclecticism", a briefly influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. As ...

(1792–1867) * Charles Paul de Kock (1793–1871) *

Jean-M.-Vincent Audin Jean-Marie-Vincent Audin (1793–1851), was a French Roman Catholic author, journalist, and historian. Biography He was born at Lyons in 1793. He first studied theology in the seminary of Argentiere, and afterward pursued the study of law. He p ...

(1793) *

Casimir Delavigne Jean-François Casimir Delavigne (4 April 179311 December 1843) was a French poet and dramatist. Life and career Delavigne was born at Le Havre, but was sent to Paris to be educated at the Lycée Napoleon. He read extensively. When, on 20 March ...

(Jean-François Casimir Delavigne) (1793–1843) * François Stoepel (1794–1836) *

Rosine de Chabaud-Latour Suzanne Rosette de Chabaud-Latour, known as Rosine de Chabaud-Latour, (15 September 1794 – 28 May 1860) was a French religious thinker and translator. The daughter of an engineer who had served Napoleon, she was a prominent member of the protes ...

(1794–1860) *

Arthur Dinaux Arthur Martin Dinaux (8 September 1795 – 15 May 1864) was a French journalist and antiquarian. Dinaux was born in Valenciennes. In 1822 he proposed excavation at the village of Famars, resulting in the discovery of over 30,000 Roman silver med ...

(1795–1864) *

Amédée Pichot Joseph Jean-Baptiste Marie Charles Amédée Pichot (3 November 1795 – 12 February 1877) was a French historian and translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent tar ...

(1795–1877) *

Modeste Gruau Modeste Gruau (25 March 1795 - 28 January 1883) was a lawyer and author. He is known for support of Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, a Prussian watchmaker who claimed to be the real Louis XVII. Biography Gruau was born in La Chartre-sur-le-Loir. Grua ...

(1795–1883) *

Augustin Thierry Augustin Thierry (or ''Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry''; 10 May 179522 May 1856) was a French historian. Although originally a follower of Henri de Saint-Simon, he later developed his own approach to history. A committed liberal, his approach ...

(1795–1856) *

Zulma Carraud Zulma Carraud (24 March 1796 – 24 April 1889) was a French author. She is best known for her children's books and textbooks particularly ''La Petite Jeanne ou le devoir'' and ''Maurice ou le travail''. Early and family life Carraud was born o ...

(1796–1889) *

François Mignet François Auguste Marie Mignet (, 8 May 1796 – 24 March 1884) was a French journalist and historian of the French Revolution. Biography He was born in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), France. His father was a locksmith from the Vendée ...

(1796–1884) *

Alfred de Vigny Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare. Biography Vigny was born in Loches (a town to which he never re ...

(1797–1863) *

Antoinette Henriette Clémence Robert Antoinette Henriette Clémence Robert (6 December 1797 – 1 December 1872) was a French writer of historical fiction, poetry, non-fiction, stage plays, and short stories. From 1855 to 1870, she and Virginie Ancelot were the most popular novelists ...

(1797–1872) *

Adolphe Thiers Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic. Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...

(1797–1877) *

Auguste Comte Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense ...

(1798–1857) *

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

(1798–1863) *

Charles Dezobry Louis Charles Dezobry (4 March 1798 – 16 August 1871) was a 19th-century French historian and historical novelist This page provides a list of novelists who have written historical novels. Countries named are where they ''worked'' for longer ...

(1798–1871) *

Jules Michelet Jules Michelet (; 21 August 1798 – 9 February 1874) was a French historian and an author on other topics whose major work was a history of France and its culture. His aphoristic style emphasized his anti-clerical republicanism. In Michelet's ...

(1798–1874) * Sophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur (1799–1874) *

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

(1799–1850)

Nineteenth century

1800–1824

* Pierre Alexandre Jean Mollière (1800–1850) *

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

(1802–1885) (''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'', 1862) *

Alexandre Dumas, père Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where ''Suffix (name)#Generational titles, '' is French language, French for 'father', to distinguish him from ...

(1802–1870) *

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...

(1803–1870) *

Edgar Quinet Edgar Quinet (; 17 February 180327 March 1875) was a French historian and intellectual. Biography Early years Quinet was born at Bourg-en-Bresse, in the ''département'' of Ain. His father, Jérôme Quinet, had been a commissary in the army, b ...

(1803–1875) *

Eugène Daumas Melchior Joseph Eugène Daumas (4 October 1803 in Delémont, Switzerland – May 1871 in Camblanes), was a French general and writer. Biography Eugène Daumas entered the army in 1822. He became an officer in 1827 and went on to the cavalry ...

(1803–1871) *

Eugène Sue Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (; 26 January 18043 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated ''The Mysteries of Paris'', which ...

(1804–1857) *

Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he ...

(1804–1869) *

Jules Janin Jules Gabriel Janin (16 February 1804 – 19 June 1874) was a French writer and critic. Life and career Born in Saint-Étienne (Loire), Janin's father was a lawyer, and he was educated first at St. Étienne, and then at the lycée Louis-le-Gra ...

(1804–1874) *

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

(Amandine-Lucie-Aurore Dupin, baronne Dudevant) (1804–1876) * Alexis Henri Charles Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (1805–1859) *

Jules-Romain Tardieu Jules-Romain Tardieu (28 January 1805 – 19 July 1868) was a French writer, publisher and bookseller. Biography Jules-Romain Tardieu was born on 28 January 1805 in Rouen, son of the painter Jean-Charles Tardieu. At the age of sixteen he joined ...

(1805–1868) *

Émile de Girardin Émile de Girardin (22 June 180227 April 1881) was a French journalist, publisher and politician. He was the most successful and flamboyant French journalist of the era, presenting himself as a promoter of mass education through mass journalism. ...

(1806–1881) *

Désiré Nisard Jean Marie Napoléon Désiré Nisard (20 March 1806 – 27 March 1888) was a French author and literary critic. He was born at Châtillon-sur-Seine. Career In 1826 he joined the staff of the ''Journal des Débats'', but subsequently transferre ...

(1806–1888) *

Émile Souvestre Émile Souvestre (April 15, 1806July 5, 1854) was a Breton novelist who was a native of Morlaix, Brittany. Initially unsuccessful as a writer of drama, he fared better as a novelist (he wrote a sci-fi novel, ''Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera'') and as a ...

(1806–1854) *

Aloysius Bertrand Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand, better known by his pen name Aloysius Bertrand (20 April 1807 — 29 April 1841), was a French Romantic poet, playwright and journalist. He is famous for having introduced prose poetry in French literature,Stuar ...

(1807–1841) *

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 Fil ...

(Gérard Labrunie) (1808–1855) * Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808–1889) * Jacques Claude Demogeot (1808–1894) *

Lucien de la Hodde Lucien de la Hodde (born 1808 in France) became a writer and a member of various secret revolutionary societies in France during the Restoration of Louis XVIII and during the July Monarchy of Louis Phillipe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 � ...

(1808–1865) *

Frédéric Villot Marie-Joseph Frédéric Villot (31 October 1809 – 27 May 1875) was a French printmaker and friend of the prominent Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix, was also an art historian, who served as paintings curator of the Louvre Museum from 1848 to ...

(1809–1875) *

Petrus Borel Joseph-Pierre Borel d'Hauterive, known as Petrus Borel (26 June 1809 – 14 July 1859), was a French writer of the Romantic movement. Born at Lyon, the twelfth of fourteen children of an ironmonger, he studied architecture in Paris but abandoned ...

(1809–1859) *

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...

(1809–1865) *

Xavier Forneret Xavier Forneret (16 September 1809 in Beaune, Côte-d'Or – 7 August 1884) was a French writer; poet, playwright and journalist. Life Born in 1809 bourgeois family by the name Antoine Charles Ferdinand, he was one of the few members of the Rom ...

(1809–1884) *

Hégésippe Moreau Hégésippe Moreau (born Pierre-Jacques Roulliot; April 8, 1810December 20, 1838) was a French lyric poet. From birth, he was called by the last name of his biological father (Moreau) and took on the pseudonym Hégésippe when he first began publ ...

(1810–1838) *

Maurice de Guérin Georges-Maurice de Guérin (4 August 181019 July 1839) was a French poet. His works were imbued with a passion for nature whose intensity reached almost to worship and was enriched by pagan elements. According to Sainte-Beuve, no French poet or ...

(1810–1839) *

Alfred de Musset Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...

(1810–1857) *

Joseph Bouchardy Joseph Bouchardy (1810–1870) was an author, playwright, engraver, and member of the Jeune France/Bouzingo and Cénacle movements. The enormous popularity of his plays earned him the nickname "The King of the Boulevard." In 1868 he was given the r ...

(1810–1870) *

Alphonse Jolly Alphonse Jolly (1810 – 10 February 1893) was a French dramatist and librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction ...

(1810–1893) * Pier Angelo Fiorentino (1811–1864) *

Armand de Pontmartin Armand Augustin Joseph Marie Ferrard, Comte de Pontmartin (1811-1890) was a French journalist, critic and man of letters. Pontmartin was born at Avignon (Vaucluse), France, on 16 July 1811. A Legitimist sympathizer, he began his career by attack ...

(1811–1890) * Adolphe-Philippe d'Ennery (1811–1889) *

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 rem ...

(1811–1872) *

Louis Blanc Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc (; ; 29 October 1811 – 6 December 1882) was a French politician and historian. A socialist who favored reforms, he called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor. Alth ...

(1811–1882) *

Victor de Laprade Pierre Martin Victor Richard de Laprade (13 January 181213 December 1883), known as Victor de Laprade, was a French poet and critic. Biography He was born at Montbrison, Loire, of a modest provincial family. After completing his studies at Lyon, ...

(1812–1883) *

Louis du Couret Louis du Couret or Abd ul-Hamid In (1812 – 1 April 1867) was a French explorer, military officer, and writer. Louis du Couret was born in France. His father was in the French Army and was a Colonel. du Couret visited Egypt in 1834, before going ...

(1812–1867) *

Eugène Bonnemère Joseph-Eugène Bonnemère (21 February 1813, Saumur – 1 November 1893, Louerre) was a French historian and writer. The grandson of Joseph Toussaint Bonnemère (1746–1794), the mayor of Saumur, Bonnemère began his literary career, in 1841, t ...

(1813–1893) *

Eugène Labiche Eugene is a common male given name that comes from the Greek εὐγενής (''eugenēs''), "noble", literally "well-born", from εὖ (''eu''), "well" and γένος (''genos''), "race, stock, kin".Joseph Arthur de Gobineau Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (; 14 July 1816 – 13 October 1882) was a French aristocrat who is best known for helping to legitimise racism by the use of scientific racist theory and "racial demography", and for developing the theory of the Ary ...

(1816–1882) *

Victor Séjour Juan Victor Séjour Marcou et Ferrand (June 2, 1817 – September 20, 1874) was an American Creole of color and expatriate writer. Born in New Orleans, he spent most of his career in Paris. His fiction and plays were written and published in Fr ...

(1817–1874) *

Paul Féval, père Paul Henri Corentin Féval, ''père'' (29 September 1816 - 8 March 1887) was a French novelist and dramatist. He was the author of popular swashbuckler novels such as ''Le Loup blanc'' (1843) and the perennial best-seller ''Le Bossu (novel), Le ...

(1817–1887) *

Adine Riom Adine Riom, née Alexandrine Louise Claudine Broband (25 October 1818, in Le Pellerin – 28 August 1899, in Nantes) was a French writer, poet, and playwright. Life Alexandrine Broband was born in Le Pellerin on 25 October 1818. She was a daugh ...

(1818–1899) * Charles-Marie Leconte de Lisle (1818–1894) *

Eugène Despois Eugène Despois (25 December 1818 – 23 September 1876) was a French translator. References

1818 births 1876 deaths École Normale Supérieure alumni Writers from Paris 19th-century French translators French male non-fiction writers 1 ...

(1818–1876) *

Jean Baptiste Marius Augustin Challamel Jean Baptiste Marius Augustin Challamel (March 18, 1818 – October 20, 1894) was a French historian. Challamel was born in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most po ...

(1818–1894) *

Adèle Hommaire de Hell Jeanne Louise Adélaïde Hommaire de Hell née Hériot (1819–1883) was a French explorer and writer. From the mid-1830s, together with her husband, the geographer and engineer Xavier Hommaire de Hell, she undertook exploratory journeys to the ...

(1819–1883), travel writer *

Eugène Fromentin Eugène Fromentin (24 October 182027 August 1876) was a French painter and writer, now better remembered for his writings. Life He was born in La Rochelle. After leaving school he studied for some years under Louis Cabat, the landscape painter. ...

(1820–1876) *

Émile Augier Guillaume Victor Émile Augier (; 17 September 182025 October 1889) was a French dramatist. He was the thirteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française on 31 March 1857. Biography Augier was born at Valence, Drôme Valence (, ...

(1820–1889) * Antoine-Élisabeth-Cléophas Dareste de la Chavanne (1820–1882) *

Jules Pizzetta Jules Pizzetta (1820–1900) was the pseudonym of a French naturalist and author, J.-P. Houzé.OCLC, http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/viaf-27199404 Publications Science * ''Quinze jours au bord de la mer: flâneries d'un naturaliste'' (1845), ...

(1820–1900) *

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

(1821–1867) (''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...

'', 1857) *

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

(1821–1880) (''

Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary'' (; ), originally published as ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' ( ), is a novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities ...

'', 1857) *

Octave Feuillet Octave Feuillet (11 July 1821 – 29 December 1890) was a French novelist and dramatist. His work stands midway between the romanticists and the realists. He is renowned for his "distinguished and lucid portraiture of life", depictions of fem ...

(1821–1890) * Jules-François-Félix Husson a/k/a Champfleury (1821–1889) *

Edmond de Goncourt Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt (; 26 May 182216 July 1896) was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt. Biography Goncourt was born in Nancy. His parents, Marc-Pierre Huot d ...

(1822–1896) *

Erckmann-Chatrian Erckmann-Chatrian was the name used by French authors Émile Erckmann (1822–1899) and Alexandre Chatrian (1826–1890), nearly all of whose works were jointly written.Mary Ellen Snodgrass, ''Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature''. New York, Facts o ...

(Emile Erckmann & Alexandre Chatrian) (1822–1899 & 1826–1890) * Louis-Nicolas Ménard (1822–1901) *

Théodore de Banville Théodore Faullain de Banville (14 March 1823 – 13 March 1891) was a French poet and writer. His work was influential on the Symbolist movement in French literature in the late 19th century. Biography Banville was born in Moulins in Allier, ...

(1823–1891) *

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...

(1823–1892) *

Alexandre Dumas, fils Alexandre Dumas (; 27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was a French author and playwright, best known for the romantic novel ''La Dame aux Camélias'' (''The Lady of the Camellias''), published in 1848, which was adapted into Giuseppe Verdi's 1 ...

(1824–1895)

1825–1849

Sainte Suzanne Melvil-Bloncourt Melville, Sainte-Suzanne, Vicomte, Bloncourt, dit Melvil-Bloncourt (born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, 23 October 1825; died 1880) was a prominent Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean abolitionist. Biography His parents were wealthy « mulattoes » - accor ...

(1825–1880) * Jean-Félix Nourrisson (1825–1899) *

Charles De Coster Charles-Theodore-Henri De Coster (20 August 1827 – 7 May 1879) was a Belgian novelist whose efforts laid the basis for a native Belgian literature. Early life and education He was born in Munich; his father, Augustin De Coster, was a nati ...

(1827–1879) *

Clair Tisseur Clair Tisseur (27 January 1827, in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Rhône – 30 September 1896, in Nyons, Drôme), was a French architect whose best known work is Église du Bon-Pasteur, a prominent Romanesque Revival church in the 1st arrondissement of ...

(Nizier du Puitspelu) (1827–1896) *

Edmond About Edmond is a given name related to Edmund. Persons named Edmond include: * Edmond Canaple (1797–1876), French politician * Edmond Chehade (born 1993), Lebanese footballer * Edmond Conn (1914–1998), American farmer, businessman, and politician ...

(1828–1885) *

Hyppolyte Taine Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practition ...

(1828–1893) *

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

(1828–1905) *

Pauline Cassin Caro Pauline Cassin Caro (, Cassin; pen name, P. Albane; 1828/34/35 – 28 January 1901, Paris) was a French Catholic novelist. She wrote under her own name and using the pseudonym, "P. Albane". Caro died in 1901. Biography Pauline Cassin was born in ...

(1828/34/35 - 1901) *

Zénaïde Fleuriot Zénaïde-Marie-Anne Fleuriot (28 October 1829 – 19 December 1890), was a French novelist. She wrote eighty three novels, all aimed at young women, most of which were published in the series Bibliothèque rose and Bibliothèque bleue. Her writin ...

(1829–1890) * Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1830–1889) *

Jules de Goncourt Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt (; 17 December 183020 June 1870) was a French writer, who published books together with his brother Edmond. Jules was born and died in Paris. His death at the age of 39 was at Auteuil-Neuilly-Passy of a stroke br ...

(1830–1870) *

Hector Malot Hector-Henri Malot (Hector Malot) (20 May 1830 – 18 July 1907) was a French writer born in La Bouille, Seine-Maritime. He studied law in Rouen and Paris, but eventually literature became his passion. He worked as a dramatic critic for ''Lloyd Fra ...

(1830–1907) *

Henri Rochefort Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Montm ...

(1830–1913) *

Henri Meilhac Henri Meilhac (23 February 1830 – 6 July 1897) was a French dramatist and opera librettist, best known for his collaborations with Ludovic Halévy on Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' and on the works of Jacques Offenbach, as well as Jules Massenet's ...

(1831–1897) *

Victorien Sardou Victorien Sardou ( , ; 5 September 18318 November 1908) was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play. He also wrote several plays that were made into popular 19th-centur ...

(1831–1908) *

Émile Gaboriau Émile Gaboriau (9 November 183228 September 1873) was a French writer, novelist, journalist, and a pioneer of detective fiction. Early life Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime. He was the son of Charles Gabriel Ga ...

(1832–1873) *

Jules Vallès Jules Vallès (11 June 1832 – 14 February 1885) was a French journalist, author, and left-wing political activist. Early life Vallès was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire. His father was a supervisor of studies (''pion''), later a teac ...

(1832–1885) *

Gaston Lavalley Gaston Lavalley (29 November 1834 in Vouilly – 1922) was a French writer, historian and art historian. He was a son of the engineer Louis-Auguste Lavalley-Dupéroux (1800–1885) and brother to Georges-Aimar Lavalley (1830–1882), later director ...

(1834–1922) *

Claire Julie de Nanteuil Claire Julie de Nanteuil (née, Pascalis; pen names, Mrs. P. de Nanteuil and Mrs. de Nanteuil; 27 October 1834 – 17 June 1897) was a 19th-century French writer. She was a two time recipient of the Montyon Prize. Nanteuil died in 1897 Biography ...

(1834-1897) *

Édouard Pailleron Édouard Jules Henri Pailleron (7 September 183419 April 1899) was a French poet and dramatist best known for his play . Early life Édouard was born in Paris on 7 September 1834. From a Parisian cultured "bourgeoise" family (upper-middle class ...

(1834–1899) *

Ludovic Halévy Ludovic Halévy (1 January 1834 – 7 May 1908) was a French author and playwright, best known for his collaborations with Henri Meilhac on Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' and on the works of Jacques Offenbach. Biography Ludovic Halévy was born in P ...

(1834–1908) *

Jean-Marie Déguignet Jean-Marie Déguignet (19 July 1834 – 29 August 1905) was a Brittany, Breton soldier, farmer, salesman, shopkeeper, and writer who is best known for his memoirs illuminating the life of the rural poor of 19th-century France. Life Déguignet ...

(1834–1905) *

Amélie Gex Amélie Rose Françoise Gex (October 24, 1835 in La Chapelle-Blanche, Savoie – June 16, 1883 in Chambéry) was a Savoyard writer and poet who created works in French language, French and Franco-Provençal language, Franco-Provençal (Arpitan). Un ...

(Dian de la Jeânna) (1835–1883) * Félix Narjoux (1836–1891) *

Jules Simon Troubat Jules Simon Troubat (1836–1914) was a French littérateur, born at Montpellier. He was the last secretary of Sainte-Beuve, one of his testamentary executors, and his legatee. He published a number of posthumous works of Sainte-Beuve, such as his ...

(1836–1914) *

Constant Fouard Constant Fouard (6 August 1837 at Elbeuf, near Rouen – 1903) was a French ecclesiastical writer. Life His early life was a preparation for the work on which his fame rests. He studied the classics at Bois-Guillaume, philosophy at Issy (1855- ...

(1837–1903) *

Henry Becque Henry François Becque (9 April 1837 – 12 May 1899), was a French dramatist. He was born in Paris. Life In 1867, he wrote, in imitation of Lord Byron, the libretto for Victorin de Joncières's opera ''Sardanapale'', but his first important work ...

(1837–1899) *

Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (7 November 1838 – 19 August 1889) was a French symbolism (arts), symbolist writer. His family called him Mathias while his friends called him Villiers; he would also use t ...

(1838–1889) *

Lucie Boissonnas Lucie Boissonnas (née, Bessirard de La Touche; pen name, Mme. B. Boissonnas; 20 April 1839 - 3 May 1877) was a 19th-century French writer. She was the recipient of the Montyon Prize in 1874 for ''Une famille pendant la guerre'' (1873). Boissonnas ...

(1839 -1877) *

Sully Prudhomme René François Armand "Sully" Prudhomme (; 16 March 1839 – 6 September 1907) was a French poet and essayist. He was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. Born in Paris, Prudhomme originally studied to be an engineer, bu ...

(1839–1907) *

Jules Lermina Jules Lermina (1839–1915) was a French writer. He began his career as a journalist in 1859. He was arrested for his socialist political opinions, and received Victor Hugo's support. He published a number of Edgar Allan Poe-inspired collectio ...

(1839–1913) *

Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ''bo ...

(1840–1897) *

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

(1840–1902) *

Arvède Barine Arvède Barine (17 November 1840 – 14 November 1908), was a French writer and historian. Arvède Barine was the pseudonym of Mme. Charles Vincens, born Louise-Cécile Bouffé on 17 November 1840. She mostly wrote on the subject of women, but sh ...

(1840–1908) *

Jules Claretie Jules is the French form of the Latin "Julius" (e.g. Jules César, the French name for Julius Caesar). It is the given name of: People with the name *Jules Aarons (1921–2008), American space physicist and photographer *Jules Abadie (1876–195 ...

(1840–1913) *

Catulle Mendès Catulle Mendès (22 May 1841 – 8 February 1909) was a French poet and man of letters. Early life and career Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, Mendès was born in Bordeaux. After childhood and adolescence in Toulouse, he arrived in Paris in 185 ...

(1841–1909) *

Charles Cros Charles Cros or Émile-Hortensius-Charles Cros (October 1, 1842 – August 9, 1888) was a French poet and inventor. He was born in Fabrezan, Aude. Cros was a well-regarded poet and humorous writer. As an inventor, he was interested in the field ...

(1842–1888) *

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...

(1842–1898) *

José María de Heredia José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

(1842–1905) *

François Coppée François Edouard Joachim Coppée (26 January 1842 – 23 May 1908) was a French poet and novelist. Biography Coppée was born in Paris to a civil servant. After attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war and won ...

(1842–1908) *

Albert Sorel Albert Sorel (13 August 184229 June 1906) was a French historian. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times. Life He was born at Honfleur and remained throughout his life a lover of his native Normandy. His father, a rich man ...

(1842–1906) *

René de Lespinasse René de Lespinasse (13 October 1843, in Bourges – 16 February 1922, in Nevers) was a French historian and politician. He was a member of the Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Île-de-France (from 1874) and served as president of the Soci ...

(1843–1922) *

Paul Arène Paul-Auguste Arène (26 June 1843 – 17 December 1896) was a Provençal poet and French writer. Biography Arène was born in Sisteron, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the son of Adolphe, a clockmaker, and Reine, a cap presser. He studied in Marseille, ...

(1843–1896) *

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and ...

(1844–1896) *

Anatole France (; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...

(Anatole François Thibault) (1844–1924) *

Tristan Corbière Tristan Corbière (18 July 1845 – 1 March 1875), born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet born in Coat-Congar, Ploujean (now part of Morlaix) in Brittany, where he lived most of his life before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 29 ...

(Edouard-Joachim) (1845–1875) *

Comte de Lautréamont Comte de Lautréamont () was the ''nom de plume'' of Isidore Lucien Ducasse (4 April 1846 – 24 November 1870), a French poet born in Uruguay. His only works, ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' and ''Poésies'', had a major influence on modern arts ...

(Isidore Lucien Ducasse) (1846–1870) *

Léon Bloy Léon Bloy (; 11 July 1846 – 3 November 1917) was a French Catholic novelist, essayist, pamphleteer (or lampoonist), and satirist, known additionally for his eventual (and passionate) defense of Catholicism and for his influence within French C ...

(1846–1917) *

Auguste Edgard Dietrich Auguste Edgard Dietrich or Auguste Edgar Dietrich (born 1846 in Nancy) was a French author and translator. Biography From an early age he took a special interest in the German language and literature, and was the first to translate two of Max ...

(1846) * Henri François Marion (1846–1896) *

Geoffroi Jacques Flach Geoffroi Jacques Flach (February 16, 1846 – December 4, 1919) was a French jurist and historian born at Strasbourg, Alsace, of a family known at least as early as the 16th century, when Sigismond Flach was the first professor of law at Universit ...

(1846–1919) *

Brada (writer) Henrietta Consuelo Sansom, Countess of Quigini Puliga (24 April 1847 – 5 August 1938) was a French writer and novelist known better by the pseudonym, Brada, a shortened version of her earlier pen name, Bradamente. She also wrote on occasion as Mo ...

(1847-1938) *

Émile Faguet Auguste Émile Faguet (; 17 December 18477 June 1916) was a French author and literary critic. Biography Faguet was born at La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée, and educated at the École normale supérieure in Paris. After teaching for some time in La R ...

(1847–1916) *

Joris-Karl Huysmans Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel ''À rebou ...

(1848–1907) *

Octave Mirbeau Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the ...

(1848–1917) *

Georges de Peyrebrune Mathilde-Marie Georgina Élisabeth de Peyrebrune (also known as George de Peyrebrune or Georges de Peyrebrune, and Judicis de la Mirandole; pseudonyms Hunedelle, Marco, and Petit Bob; 18 April 1841 – 1917) was a key French proto-feminist Belle ...

(1848–1917) *

Ferdinand Brunetière Ferdinand Brunetière (19 July 1849 – 9 December 1906) was a French writer and critic. Personal and public life Early years Brunetière was born in Toulon, Var, Provence. After school at Marseille, he studied in Paris at the Lycée Louis-le-Gr ...

(1849–1906) *

Jean Richepin Jean Richepin (; 4 February 1849 – 12 December 1926) was a French poet, novelist and dramatist. Biography Son of an army doctor, Jean Richepin was born 4 February 1849 at Médéa, French Algeria. At school and at the École Normale Supér ...

(1849–1926) *

Georges de Porto-Riche Georges de Porto-Riche (20 May 1849, Bordeaux, Gironde – 5 September 1930, Paris) was a French dramatist and novelist. Biography Georges was born into a Jewish-Italian assimilated family. At the age of twenty, his pieces in verse began to b ...

(1849–1930)

1850–1859

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

(1850–1893) *

Pierre Loti Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica El ...

(Julien Viaud) (1850–1923) * Gyp (1850–1932) *

Germain Nouveau Germain Marie Bernard Nouveau (1851–1920) was a French poet associated with the symbolist movement. Biography Early life Germain Nouveau was born on 31 July 1851 in Pourrières, Var, in France. He was one of four children of Felicien Nou ...

(1851–1920) *

Élémir Bourges Élémir Bourges (26 March 1852, Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence – 13 November 1925) was a French novelist. A winner of the Goncourt Prize, he was also a member of the Académie Goncourt. Bourges, who accused the Naturalists of having "belitt ...

(1852–1925) *

Paul Bourget Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (; 2 September 185225 December 1935) was a French poet, novelist and critic. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. Life Paul Bourget was born in Amiens in the Somme ''département'' of P ...

(1852–1935) * Alfred Masson-Forestier (1852–1912) *

Maurice Rollinat Maurice Rollinat (December 29, 1846 in Châteauroux, Indre – October 26, 1903 in Ivry-sur-Seine) was a French poet and musician. Early works His father represented Indre in the National Assembly of 1848, and was a friend of George Sand, whose i ...

(1853–1903) *

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he starte ...

(1854–1891),

Une Saison en Enfer Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Chipaque in the north ...

Alphonse Allais Alphonse Allais (20 October 1854 – 28 October 1905) was a French writer, journalist and humorist. Life Allais was born in Honfleur, Calvados. He died in Paris. Work He is the author of many collections of whimsical writings. A poet as much as ...

(1854–1905) *

Laurent Tailhade Laurent Tailhade (; 1854–1919) was a French satirical poet, anarchist polemicist, essayist, and translator, active in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s. Works *''Au pays du mufle'' 1891. *''Poèmes élégiaques'' Vitraux. Vanier, 1891. *''A ...

(1854–1919) *

Georges Rodenbach Georges Raymond Constantin Rodenbach (16 July 1855 – 25 December 1898) was a Belgian Symbolist poet and novelist. Biography Georges Rodenbach was born in Tournai to a French mother and a German father from the Rhineland (Andernach). He was ...

(1855–1898) *

Jean Lorrain Jean Lorrain (9 August 1855 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime – 30 June 1906), born Paul Alexandre Martin Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school. Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism and spent much of his time amongs ...

(1855–1906) *

Émile Verhaeren Émile Adolphe Gustave Verhaeren (; 21 May 1855 – 27 November 1916) was a Belgian poet and art critic who wrote in the French language. He was one of the founders of the school of Symbolism and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Litera ...

(1855–1916) *

Adolphe Chenevière Adolphe Chenevière, D.ès.L. (1855–1917) was a fin de siècle Swiss novelist, short story writer, and literary scholar. Life Adolphe Chenevière was born to Arthur Chenevière (a state counsellor for the canton of Geneva) and Susanne Firmine ...

(1855–1917) *

Noël Valois Noël Valois (4 May 1855, Paris – 11 November 1915, Paris), was a French historian. The grandson of sculptor Achille Valois, Valois studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. He then entered the École Nationale des Chartes in 1875, where he pre ...

(1855–1915) *

Marie Lion Marie Lion (2 May 1855 – 3 May 1922) was a French–Australian novelist, artist, and teacher. For forty years she lived in Australia with her sister , an accomplished artist and art teacher. Lion was Australia's first French novelist, and the f ...

(1855-1922) *

Jean Moréas Jean Moréas (; born Ioannis A. Papadiamantopoulos, Ιωάννης Α. Παπαδιαμαντόπουλος; 15 April 1856 – 31 March 1910), was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic, who wrote mostly in the French language but also in Greek ...

(Jean Papadiamantopoulos) (1856–1910) *

Pierre Decourcelle Pierre Adrien Decourcelle (25 January 1856 - 10 October 1926) was a French writer and playwright. Life Pierre Adrien Decourcelle was born in Paris on 25 January 1856. His father, Adrien Decourcelle, and his uncle, Adolphe d'Ennery, were both au ...

(1856–1926) *

Gustave Lanson Gustave Lanson (5 August 1857 – 15 December 1934) was a French historian and literary critic. He taught at the Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. A dominant figure in French literary criticism, he influenced several gener ...

(1857–1934) *

Albert Samain Albert Victor Samain (3 April 185818 August 1900) was a French poet and writer of the Symbolist school. Life and works Born in Lille, his family were Flemish and had long lived in the town or its suburbs. At the time of the poet's birth, his fa ...

(1858–1900) *

Jules Lemaître François Élie Jules Lemaître (27 April 1853 – 4 August 1914) was a French critic and dramatist. Biography Lemaître was born in Vennecy, Loiret. He became a professor at the University of Grenoble in 1883, but was already well known for hi ...

(1858–1915) *

Remy de Gourmont Remy de Gourmont (4 April 1858 – 27 September 1915) was a French symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and Georges Bataille. The spelling ''Rémy'' de Go ...

(1858–1915) *

Émile Durkheim David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...

(1858–1917) * Alfred Capus (1858–1922) * Georges Courteline (Georges Moineaux) (1858–1929) * Neel Doff (1858–1942) * Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858–1935) * Henri Danoy (1859–1928) * Gustave Belot (1859–1929) * Paul Naudet (1859–1929) * Anatole Le Braz (1859–1926) * Gustave Kahn (1859–1936) * Henri Bergson (1859–1941)

1860–1869

* Jules Laforgue (1860–1887) * Paul Margueritte (1860–1918) * Michel Zévaco (1860–1918) * Paul Roux a/k/a Saint-Pol-Roux le Magnifique (1861–1940) * Paul Adam (French novelist), Paul Adam (1862–1920) * Georges Darien (1862–1921) * Georges Feydeau (1862–1921) * Maurice Barrès (1862–1923) * Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) * Stuart Merrill (1863–1915) * Marguerite Audoux (1863–1937) * Jules Renard (1864–1910) * Henri de Régnier (1864–1936) * Léon Broutin (fl. 1865–77) * Maurice Leblanc (1864–1941) * Juliette Heuzey (1865-1952) * Romain Rolland (1866–1944) * Tristan Bernard (1866–1947) * Fortunat Strowski (1866–1952) * Charles de Beaupoil, comte de Saint-Aulaire (1866–1954) * Émile Lauvrière (1866–1954) * René Boylesve (René Tardivaux) (1867–1926 * Jehan Rictus (Gabriel Randon) (1867–1933) * Léon Daudet (1867–1942) * Marcel Schwob (1867–1905) * Paul-Jean Toulet (1867–1920) * Romain Coolus (1868–1952) * Edmond Rostand (1868–1918) * Gaston Leroux (1868–1927) (''The Phantom of the Opera'', ''Le Mystère de la chambre jaune'') * Achille Essebac (1868–1936) * Francis Jammes (1868–1938) * Émile Auguste Chartier a/k/a "Alain" (1868–1951) * Paul Claudel (1868–1955) * André Spire (1868–1966) * Gaston Arman de Caillavet (1869–1915) * Augustin Chaboseau (1868–1946) * André Gide (1869–1951)

1870–1879

* Marcelle Tinayre (1870–1948) * Henri Bordeaux (1870–1963) * Pierre Louÿs (Pierre Louis) (1870–1925) * Maximilien Winter (1871–1935) * André Chéradame (1871–1948) * Albert Geouffre de Lapradelle (1871–1955) * Gaston Brière (1871–1962) * Marcel Proust (1871–1922), ''In Search of Lost Time'' * Paul Valéry (1871–1945) * Louis Madelin (1871–1956) * Henry Bataille (1872–1922) * Robert de Flers (1872–1927) * Paul Fort (1872–1960) * Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) * Charles Péguy (1873–1914) * Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) * Colette (Sidonie Gabrielle Colette) (1873–1954) * Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914) * Albert Thibaudet (1874–1936) * Tristan Klingsor (1874–1966) * Binet-Valmer (1875–1940) * Paul Watrin (1876–1950) * Anna de Noailles (Anne de Brancovan, comtesse de Noailles) (1876–1933) * Max Jacob (1876–1944) * Léon-Paul Fargue (1876–1947) * Pierre Albert-Birot (1876–1967) * Marcel Bouteron (1877–1962) * Raymond Roussel (1877–1933) * Oscar Milosz, Oscar Venceslas de Lubicz-Milosz (1877–1939) * Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, dit C. F. Ramuz (1878–1947) * Victor Segalen (1878–1919) * Henry de Monfreid (1879–1974) * Francis Picabia (1879–1953) * Henri Fauconnier (1879–1973)

1880–1889

* Louis Hémon (1880–1913) * Guillaume Apollinaire (Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky) (1880–1918) * Lucie Delarue-Mardrus (1880–1945) * Francis de Miomandre (Francis Durand) (1880–1959) * Alzir Hella (1881–1953) * Valery Larbaud (1881–1957) * Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958) * André Salmon (1881–1969) * Jérôme Carcopino (1881–1970) * Louis Pergaud (1882–1915) * Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944) * André Billy (1882–1971) * Pierre MacOrlan (Pierre Dumarchais) (1883–1970) * Rose Combe (1883–1932) * Marie Noël (1883–1933) * Auguste Detœuf (1883–1947) * Albert Pauphilet (1884–1948) * Jules Supervielle (1884–1960 * Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) * Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) * Jacques Chardonne (Jacques Boutelleau) (1884–1968) * Jean Paulhan (1884–1968) * Alexandre Arnoux (1884–1973) * Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes (1884–1974) * René Hubert (historian), René Hubert (1885–1954) * Sacha Guitry (1885–1957) * André Maurois (Emile Herzog) (1885–1967) * Fernand Crommelynck (1885–1970) * Jules Romains (Jules-Louis de Farigoule) (1885–1972) * Marthe Bibesco (1885–1973) * Alain-Fournier (Henri Fournier) (1886–1914) * Francis Carco (François Carcopino-Tusoli) (1886–1958) * Pierre Benoît (novelist), Pierre Benoit (1886–1962) * Geneviève Fauconnier (1886–1969) * Roland Dorgelès (Roland Lecavelé) (1886–1973) * Jean-Charles Roman d'Amat (1887–1976) * Henri Pourrat (1887–1959) * Jean de La Varende (Jean-Balthazar Mallard, comte de La Varende) (1887–1959) * René Maran (1887-1960) * Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961) * François Mauriac (1887–1970) * Saint-John Perse (Alexis Léger) (1887–1975) * Pierre-Jean Jouve (1887–1976) * Marcel Martinet (1887–1944) * Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) * Henri Bosco (1888–1976) * Paul Morand (1888–1976) * Marcel Jouhandeau (1888–1979) * Jacques de Lacretelle (1888–1985) * Tristan Derème (1889–1941) * Pierre Reverdy (1889–1960) * Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) * Émile Henriot (writer), Émile Henriot (1889–1961)

1890–1899

* Maurice Genevoix (1890–1980) * Victor Serge (1890–1947) * Leilah Mahi (1890–1932) * Édouard Dunglas (1891–1952) * La Mazille (1891–1984) * Max Ernst (1891–1976) * Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (1893–1945) * Edmond Brazès (1893 - 1980) * Luc Benoist (1893–1980) * Paul Foulquié (1893–1983) * Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob) (1894–1954) * Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Louis Destouches) (1894–1961) (''Voyage au bout de la nuit'', 1932) * Paul Éluard (Eugène Grindel) (1895–1952) * Jean Giono (1895–1970) * Marcel Pagnol (1895–1974) * Albert Cohen (novelist), Albert Cohen (1895–1981) * Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) * André Breton (1896–1966) * Henry de Montherlant (Henry Millon de Montherlant) (1896–1972) * Paulette Nardal (1896–1995) * Tristan Tzara (1896–1963) * Elsa Triolet (1896–1970) * Louis Aragon (1897–1982) * Georges Bataille (1897–1962) * Joë Bousquet (1897–1950) * Philippe Soupault (1897–1990) * Marcel Thiry (1897–1977) * Eugène Dabit (1898–1936) * Michel de Ghelderode (1898–1962) * Joseph Kessel (1898–1979) * Paul Vialar (1898–1996) * Louise Noëlle Malclès (1899–1977) * Roger Vitrac (1899–1952) * Pierre Virion (1899–1988) * Jacques Audiberti (1899–1965) * Marcel Achard (1899–1974) * Louis Guilloux (1899–1980) * Henri Michaux (1899–1984) * Marcel Arland (1899–1986) * Marcelle Auclair (1899–1983) * Armand Salacrou (1899–1989) * Francis Ponge (1899–1988)

Twentieth century

1900–1909

* Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944) * Robert Desnos (1900–1945) * Jacques Prévert (1900–1977) * André Chamson (1900–1983) * André Dhôtel (1900–1991) * Albert Ayguesparse (1900–1996) * Julien Green (1900–1998) * Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999) * Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900 or 1901–1991) * Georges Limbour (1900–1970) * Marcel Sendrail (1900–1976) * Jacques Bordiot (1900–1983) * Maurice Féaudierre (1901) * Jean Meuvret (1901–1971) * Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1901–1937) * Jean Prévost (1901–1944) * Henri Daniel-Rops (Henri Petiot) (1901–1965) * Lanza del Vasto (1901–1981) * Charles Lecocq (1901–1922) * Michel Leiris (1901–1990) * Suzanne Lilar (1901–1992) * André Malraux (1901–1976) * Marcel Aymé (1902–1967) * Fernand Braudel (1902–1985) * Marie-Magdeleine Carbet (1902-1996) * Julien Torma (1902–1933) * Louise de Vilmorin (1902–1969) * Vercors (pseudonym for Jean Bruller) (1902–1991) * Jean Tardieu (1903–1995) * Raymond Radiguet (1903–1923) * Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942) * Jean Follain (1903–1971) * Georges Simenon (1903–1989) * Raymond Queneau (1903–1976) * Marguerite Yourcenar (Marguerite de Crayencour) (1903–1987) * René Bansard (1904–1971) * Marie-Anne Desmarest (1904–1973) * Gilbert Lely (1904–1985) * Yves Congar (1904–1995) * Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) * Maurice Fombeure (1906–1981) * Charles Exbrayat (1906–1989) * Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) * René Sédillot (1906–1999) * Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001) * Roger Vailland (1907–1965) * Pauline Réage (Anne Desclos) (1907–1998) * Violette Leduc (1907–1972) * Raymond Abellio (Georges Soulès) (1907–1986) * René Char (1907–1988) * Maurice Blanchot (1907–2003) * René Ménil (1907–2004) * Roger Peyrefitte (1907–2000) * Roger Gilbert-Lecomte (1907–1943) * Jacques Roumain (1907–1944) * René Daumal (1908–1944) * Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) * Paul Bénichou (1908–2001) * Robert Merle (1908–2004) * Simone Weil (1909–1943) * Stéphane Pizella (1909–1970) * Anaïs Nin (1909–1977) * Jean-Fernand Brierre (1909–1993) * Robert Brasillach (1909–1945) * André Pieyre de Mandiargues (1909–1991) * Léo Malet (1909–1996)

1910–1919

* Jean Anouilh (1910–1987) * Jean-Louis Baghio'o (1910–1994) * Jean Genet (1910–1986) * Paul Guth (1910–1997) * Julien Gracq (Louis Poirier) (1910–2007) * Emil Cioran (1911–1995) * Raphaël Tardon (1911–1967) * André Hardellet (1911–1974) * René Barjavel (1911–1985) * Guy des Cars (Guy de Pérusse des Cars) (1911–1993) * Hervé Bazin (Jean Hervé-Bazin) (1911–1996) * Jean Cayrol (1911–2005) * Henri Troyat (Lev Tarassov) (1911–2007) * André Jardin (1912–1996) * Pierre Boulle (1912–1994) * Edmond Jabès (1912–1991) * Eugène Ionesco (1912–1994) * Jacques de Bourbon Busset (1912–2001) * Armand Robin (1912–1961) * Claude Simon (1913–2005) * Luc Dietrich (1913–1944) * Albert Camus (1913–1960) * Mouloud Feraoun (1913–1962) * Gilbert Cesbron (1913–1979) * Armand Lanoux (1913–1983) * Pierre Daninos (1913–2005) * Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) * Félicien Marceau (Louis Carette)(1913–2012) * Romain Gary (Romain Kacew a/k/a Romain Gary a/k/a Emile Ajar) (1914–1980) * Béatrix Beck (1914–2008) * Marguerite Duras (Marguerite Donnadieu) (1914–1996) *Ahmed Sefrioui (1915–2004) * Roland Barthes (1915–1980) * Suzanne Césaire (1915–1966) * Louis Dollot (1915–1997) * Joseph Zobel (1915–2006) * Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, Virgil Gheorghiu (1916–1992) * Jean-Louis Curtis (Louis Laffitte) (1917–1995) * Ambroise Yxemerry (1917–2013) * Pierre Bettencourt (1917–2006) * Alain Guy (1918–1998) * Maurice Druon (1918–2009) * Michel Quoist (1918–1997) * Jean Venturini (1919–1940) * Alain Bosquet (Anatole Bisk) (1919–1998) * Jacques Laurent a/k/a Jacques Laurent-Cely or Cécil Saint-Laurent (1919–2000) * Michel Déon (1919–2016) * Robert Pinget (1919–1997)

1920–1929

* Jean Dutourd (1920–2011) * Jean Lartéguy (1920–2011) * Jean Madiran (1920–2013) * Mohammed Dib (1920–2003) * Boris Vian (1920–1959) * Françoise d'Eaubonne (1920–2005) * Albert Memmi (1920–2020) * Georges Brassens (1921–1981) * Gérald Neveu (1921–1960) * André Rogerie (1921–2014) * Michel Guiomar (1921–2013) * Jean-Pierre Renouard (1922–2014) * Antoine Blondin (1922–1990) * Jean-Charles (1922–2003) * Jean-Claude Renard (1922–2002) * Stefan Wul (1922–2003) * Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922–2008) * Yves Bonnefoy (1923–2016) * Roger Foulon (1923–2008) * Georges Perros (1923–1978) * Ousmane Sembène (1923–2007) * Jean Dumont (historian), Jean Dumont (1923–2001) * Claude Paillat (1924–2001) * André du Bouchet (1924–2003) * Salvat Etchart (1924–1985) * Michel Tournier (1924–2016) * Philippe Jaccottet (1925–2021) * Roger Nimier (1925–1962) * Jean d'Ormesson (1925–2017) * François Augiéras (1925–1971) * Alphonse Boudard (1925–2000) * Roger Giroux (1925–1973) * Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) * Jean Robieux (1925–2012) * Robert Misrahi (1926–...) * Yvon Taillandier (1926–2018) * Michel Foucault (1926–1984) * Michel Butor (1926–2016) * Jacques Dupin (1927–2012) * Gisèle Halimi (1927–2020) * François Nourissier (1927–2011) * Robert Fossier (1927–2012) * Jacques Rivette (1928–2016) * André Schwarz-Bart (1928–2006) * Édouard Glissant (1928–2011) * Kateb Yacine (1929–1989) * Nicolas Bouvier (1929–1998)

1930–1939

* Jacques Lafaye (1930–...) * Maggi Lidchi-Grassi (1930–...) * Françoise Mallet-Joris (1930–2016) * Jacques Ehrmann (1931–1972) * Fernando Arrabal (1932–...) * Mongo Beti (1932–2001) * Hédi Bouraoui (1932–...) * Claude Pujade-Renaud (1932–...) * Jacques Roubaud (1932–...) * Julienne Salvat (1932–2019) * Marcelin Pleynet (1933–...) * Claude Esteban (1935–2006) * Agota Kristof (1935–2011) * Françoise Sagan (Françoise Quoirez) (1935–2004) * Daniel Zimmermann (1935–2000) * Assia Djebar (1936–2015) * Frankétienne (1936–...) * Jean-Edern Hallier (1936–1997) * Georges Perec (1936–1982) * Philippe Sollers (1936–...) * Alain Grée (1936–...) * Anne-Marie Albiach (1937–2012) * Marc Alyn (1937–...) * Pierre Billon (writer), Pierre Billon (1937–...) * Andrée Brunin (1937–1993) * Hélène Cixous (1937–...) * Maryse Condé (1937–...) * Abdelkebir Khatibi (1938–2009) * Daniel Oster (1938–1999) * Sandra Jayat (c.1939–...) * Michèle Lesbre (1939–...) * Kenizé Mourad (1939–...) * Gérard Roubichou (1939–...)

1940–1949

* Annie Ernaux (1940–...) * Marie-Reine de Jaham (1940-...) * J.M.G. Le Clézio (1940–...) * Emmanuel Hocquard (1940–2019) * Charles Duchaussois (1940–1991) * Bernard Brizay (1941–...) * Louis Mélennec (1941–...) * Jean Daive (1941–...) * Julia Kristeva (1941–...) * Jean Marcel (1941–...) * François Weyergans (1941–2019) * Josaphat-Robert Large (1942–2017) * François-Xavier Guerra (1942–2002) * Wladimir Troubetzkoy (1942–2009) * Jean Bernabé (1942–2017) * Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) * Guy Olivier Faure (1943–...) * Yves Manglou (1943–...) * Eva Joly (1943–...) * René-Louis Baron (1944–...) * Noëlle Châtelet (1944–...) * Doumbi Fakoly (1944–...) * Jean-Jacques Greif (1944–...) * Sergio Kokis (1944–...) * Daniel Pennac (1944–...) * Lucien Polastron (1944–...) * Marc Filloux (1944–1974) * Alain Guillerm (1944–2005) * Françoise Chandernagor (1945–...) * Tony Duvert (1945–2008) * Pierre Michon (1945–...) * Gisèle Bienne (1946–...) * Renaud Camus (1946–...) * Djémil Kessous (1946–...) * Tahar Ben Jelloun (1947–...) * Daniel Maximin (1947-...) * Luc Perino (1947–...) * Michel Étiévent (1947–...) * Loïc Le Ribault (1947–2007) * Élisabeth Vonarburg (1947–...) * Jean-Pierre Poccioni (1948–...) * André Rouillé (1948–...) * Bertrand Le Gendre (1948–...) * Jean-Paul Goux (1948–...) * Serge Duigou (1948–...) * François Leperlier (1949–...) * Amin Maalouf (1949–...) * Didier Daeninckx (1949–...) * Pierre Bergounioux (1949–...) * Boualem Sansal (1949–...)

1950–present

* Bernard Bonnejean (1950–...) * Yolande Cohen (1950–...) * Jean-Paul Dubois (1950–...) * Moussa Konaté (1951–2013) * Salim Jay (1951–...) * Bernard Cottret (1951–2020) * Jean-Didier Urbain (1951–...) * Raphaël Confiant (1951–...) * Pierre-Henri Bunel (1952–...) * Dan Franck (1952–...) * Dany Laferrière (1953–...) * Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (1953–...) * Nancy Huston (1953–...) * Patrick Chamoiseau (1953–...) * François Bon (1953–...) * Édouard Brasey (1954–...) * Paul Dirmeikis (1954–...) * Tahar Djaout (1954–1993) * Margaret Maruani (1954–...) * Dai Sijie (1954–...) * Pascale Roze (1954–...) * Adelina Yzac (1954–...) * Jean-Pierre Vallotton (1955–...) * Alexandra Lapierre (1955–...) * Caroline Lamarche (1955–...) * Bertrand Renard (1955–...) * Joël Henry (journalist), Joël Henry (journalist) (1955–...) * Renaud Girard (1955–...) * Annie Pietri (1956–...) * Charles Mopsik (1956–2003) * Gisèle Pineau (1956–...) * Jean-Pierre Thiollet (1956–...) * Khal Torabully (1956–...) * Hervé Le Tellier (1957–...) * Youssef Rzouga (1957–...) * Jean-Philippe Toussaint (1957–...) * Azouz Begag (1957–...) * Didier Ottinger (1957–...) * Olivier Da Lage (1957–...) * Simon Basinger (1957–...) * Michel Houellebecq (1958–...) * Pierre Leroux (author), Pierre Leroux (1958-...) * Marc-Édouard Nabe (1958–...) * Olivier Weber (1958–...) * Denis Robert (1958–...) * Benjamin Sehene (1959–...) * Christine Angot (1959–...) * Frédéric-Yves Jeannet (1959–...) * Jean-Luc Bitton (1959–...) * Malek Belarbi (1959–...) * Nicolas Fiévé (1959–...) * Bruno Laurioux (1959–...) * Jacques Bonjawo (1960–...) * Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt (1960–...) * Simonetta Greggio (1961–...) * Bernard Werber (1961–...) * Charles Dantzig (1961–...) * Philippe Buc (1961–...) * Valérie Grumelin-Halimi (1961–...) * Philippe Claudel (1962–...) *Catherine Cusset (1963–...) * Beatrice Hammer (1963–...) * Kevin Bokeili (1963–2014) * Alexis Jenni (1963–...) * Bill GB Pallot (1964–...) * Ann Scott (French novelist), Ann Scott (1965–...) * Stéphane Laurent (1966–...) * Odile Benyahia-Kouider (1966–...) * Alain Mabanckou (1966–...) * Delphine Gardey (1967–...) * Paul-Louis Roubert (1967–...) * Jonathan Littell (1967–...) * Amélie Nothomb (1967–...) * Fréderic Neyrat (1968–...) * Norbert-Bertrand Barbe (1968–...) * Kim Thúy (1968–...) * Virginie Despentes (1969–...) * Louis Emond (1969–...) * Antoine Bello (1970–...) * Christophe Honoré (1970–...) * Fabienne Kanor (1970–...) * Édouard Tétreau (1970–...) * Philippe Boisnard (1971–...) * Yannick Mireur (1971–...) * Angela Behelle (1971–...) * Nicolas Ancion (1971–...) * Luis de Miranda (1971–...) * Cristina Rodríguez (journalist), Cristina Rodríguez (1972–...) * Kilien Stengel (1972–...) * Roland Michel Tremblay (1972–...) * Romain Sardou (1974–...) * Guillaume Musso (1974–...) * Olivier Adam (1974–...) * Benoît Bringer (1979–...) * Agnès Martin-Lugand (1979–...) * Jérémy Marie (1984–...) *Benjamin Hoffmann (1985–...) * Charles Luylier (1989–...) * Blandine Rinkel (1991-…) * Soraya Nini (1993–...) * Estelle Beauchamp (novelist since 1995)

Middle Ages

Fifteenth century

Sixteenth century

1500–1549

1550–1599

Seventeenth century

1600–1649

1650–1699

Eighteenth century

1700–1749

1750–1799

Nineteenth century

1800–1824

1825–1849

1850–1859

1860–1869

1870–1879

1880–1889

1890–1899

Twentieth century

1900–1909

1910–1919

1920–1929

1930–1939

1940–1949

1950–present

See also