Denis Vairasse
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Denis Vairasse d' Allais (c.1630–1672) was a French
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
writer, especially known for his
Utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
novel, '' History of Sevarambes''.


Biography

Vairasse was born in a Protestant lower-middle-class family in France, and belonged to the royal troops. He studied ethics, for which he was awarded a doctorate in around 1660. As a Protestant, he was forced into exile in England by the religious conflicts in France during the seventeenth century, where he wrote his ''History of the Severambians''; later translated into French and then a number of other European languages after it found popular success.


Works


''History of Sevarambes''

(Full Title: ''The history of the Sevarites or Sevarambi, a nation inhabiting part of the third continent commonly called Terræ australes incognitæ with an account of their admirable government, religion, customs, and language / written by one Captain Siden, a worthy person, who, together with many others, was cast upon those coasts, and lived many years in that country.'') "People which live part of the unintermitting third, commonly called the southern land, containing a relation of the Government, manners, religion & language of this nation, unknown factor until now at the people of Europe", on the assumption of the existence of
Southern lands ''Southern Lands'' is the debut album by Cetu Javu, released in 1990. Track listing All songs written by Chris Demere (music) and Javier Revilla-Diez (lyrics). CD: GLX 20168-2 # "Southern Lands" – 4:14 # "Love Me" – 4:13 # "Oye" – 4:22 ...
nondiscovered in Indian Ocean in the south-east of
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
. His major work was ''Histoire of Séverambes'', a Utopian novel set in Australia, a travel story akin to
Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
's ''Utopia'' and
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
's ''
Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
''. Authors such as Bayle, Rousseau, Kant and Cabet read it and were probably inspired by some parts of it, and the book was directed referenced by
Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principa ...
in chapter VI of his book "Spirit of Laws". An innovation of this book, presented in the manner of works of geography or anthropology, was the integration in the
romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
construction of direct criticism of the revealed and imposed religions, and in particular of the Catholicism of the 17th century. Initially published in 1675 in London and in English, it then appeared in French in two parts (1677–1679), the first being, according to the author, a kind of "historical journal". Further editions were later published including one (''New edition, corrected & increased'') by Henry Desbordes in Amsterdam in 1734. The book was an international success, translated into several languages, "originally in English, then in a French version that spurred German, Dutch, and Italian translations (Atkinson 1920).".Anthropology and the savage slot:The Poetics and Politics of Otherness by Michel-Rolph Trouillot: http://www.unc.edu/~aparicio/WAN/TrouillotThesavageslot.pdf The first French translation was in 1682 (before another version in 1702), Dutch in 1683, German in 1689 (and again in 1714), and Italian in 1728. It was recently republished in French (based on a 1787 French edition) in a contemporary form, orthography and typography, and without the cuts made in the back issue.


See also

* History of the Sevarambians


External links

* * - French Wikipedia article (original basis of this English Wikipedia article *
– List gathering principal utopian and dystopic works of – III front J.C at our days.
*


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vairasse, Denis 1630s births Year of birth unknown 1672 deaths 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French novelists French Protestants French male novelists