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MARMONTEL, JEAN FRANCOIS (1723-1799)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 745 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARMONTEL, See also:JEAN See also:FRANCOIS (1723-1799) , See also:French writer, was See also:born of poor parents at See also:Bort, in See also:Cantal, on the 11th of See also:July 1723. After studying with the See also:Jesuits at See also:Mauriac, he taught in their colleges at Clermont and See also:Toulouse; and in 1745, acting on the See also:advice of See also:Voltaire, he set out for See also:Paris to try for See also:literary honours. From 1748 to 1753 he wrote a See also:succession of tragedies which,' though only moderately successful on the See also:stage, secured the See also:admission of the author to literary and fashionable circles. He wrote for the Encyclopedie a See also:series of articles evincing considerable See also:critical See also:power and insight, which in their collected See also:form, under the See also:title Elements de Lilteralure, still See also:rank among the French Denys le Tyran (1748) ; Aristomene (1749) ; Cleopdtre (1750) ; Heraelides (1752) ; Egyptus (1753). See also:MARMOSET 745 See also:classics. He also wrote several comic operas, the two best of which probably are Sylvain (1770) and Zemire et Azore (1771). In the See also:Gluck-Piccini controversy he was an eager See also:partisan of Piccini with whom he collaborated in See also:Didon (1783) and See also:Penelope (1785). In 1758 he gained the patronage of Madame de See also:Pompadour, who obtained for him a See also:place as a See also:civil servant, and the management of the See also:official See also:journal Le Mercure, in which he had already begun the famous series ,of Contes moraux. The merit of these tales lies partly in the delicate finish of the See also:style, but mainly in the graphic and charming pictures of French society under See also:Louis XV. The author was elected to the French See also:Academy in 1763. In 1767 he published a See also:romance, Belisaire, now remark-able only on See also:account of a See also:chapter on religious See also:toleration which incurred the censure of the See also:Sorbonne and the See also:archbishop of Paris. Marmontel retorted in See also:Les Incas (1778) by tracing the cruelties in See also:Spanish See also:America to the religious fanaticism of the invaders.

He was appointed historiographer of See also:

France (1771), secretary to the Academy (1783), and See also:professor of See also:history in the Lycee (1786). In his See also:character of historiographer Marmontel wrote a history of the regency (1788) which is of little value. Reduced to poverty by the Revolution, Marmontel in 1792 retired during the Terror to See also:Evreux, and soon after to a cottage at Abloville in the See also:department of See also:Eure. To that See also:retreat we owe his Memoires d'un pere (4 vols., 1804) giving a picturesque See also:review of his whole See also:life, a literary history of two important reigns, a See also:great See also:gallery of portraits extending from the See also:venerable See also:Massillon, whom more than See also:half a See also:century previously he had seen at Clermont, to See also:Mirabeau. The See also:book was nominally written for the instruction of his See also:children. It contains an exquisitely See also:drawn picture of his own childhood in the See also:Limousin; its value for the literary historian is very great. Marmontel lived for some See also:time under the roof of Mme See also:Geoffrin, and was See also:present at her famous dinners given to artists; he was, indeed, an habitue of most of the houses where the encyclopaedists met. He had thus at his command the best material for his portraits, and made See also:good use of his opportunities. After a See also:short stay in Paris when elected in 1797 to the Conseil See also:des Anciens, he died on the 31st of See also:December 1799 at Abloville. See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, iv.; See also:Morellet, Eloge (1805).

End of Article: MARMONTEL, JEAN FRANCOIS (1723-1799)

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