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CAZOTTE, JACQUES (1719-1792)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 591 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CAZOTTE, JACQUES (1719-1792) , See also:French author, was See also:born at See also:Dijon, on the 17th of See also:October 1719. He was educated by the See also:Jesuits, and at twenty-seven he obtained a public See also:office at See also:Martinique, but it was not till his return to See also:Paris in 176o with the See also:rank of See also:commissioner-See also:general that he made a public See also:appearance as an author. His first attempts, a See also:mock See also:romance, and a coarse See also:song, gained so much popularity, both in the See also:court and among the See also:people, that he was encouraged to See also:essay something more ambitious. He accordingly produced his romance, See also:Les Prouesses inimitables d'011ivier, See also:marquis d'Edesse. He also wrote a number of fantastic See also:oriental tales, such as his Mille et une fadaises, Conies d dormir debout (1742). His first success was with a " poem in twelve cantos, and in See also:prose intermixed with See also:verse, entitled 011ivier (2 vols., 1762), followed in 1771 by another romance, the See also:Lord See also:Impromptu. But the most popular of his See also:works was the Diable amoureux (1772), a fantastic See also:tale in which the See also:hero raises the See also:devil. The value of the See also:story lies in the picturesque setting, and the skill with which its details are carried out. Cazotte possessed extreme facility and is said to have turned off a seventh See also:canto of See also:Voltaire's Guerre civile de Geneve in a single See also:night. About 1775 Cazotte embraced the views of the See also:Illuminati, declaring himself possessed of the See also:power of prophecy. It was upon this fact that La Harpe based his famous jeu d'esprit, in which he represents Cazotte as prophesying the most See also:minute events of the Revolution. On the See also:discovery of some of his letters in See also:August 1792, Cazotte was arrested; and though he escaped for a See also:time through the love and courage of his daughter, he was executed on the 25th of the following See also:month.

The only See also:

complete edition is the U uvres badines et morales, historiques et philosophiques de Jacques Cazotte (4 vols., 1816-1817), though more than one collection appeared during his lifetime. An edition de luxe of the Diable amoureux was edited (1878) by A. J. Pons, and a selection of Cazotte's Contes, edited (188o) by See also:Octave Uzanne, is included in the See also:series of Petits Conteurs du X VIIIe siecle. The best See also:notice of Cazotte is in the Illumines (1852) of See also:Gerard de See also:Nerval.

End of Article: CAZOTTE, JACQUES (1719-1792)

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