Which influential writer of the French Renaissance, who helped to popularise the essay as a literary form , is perhaps best remembered for his 'Apology For Raymond Sebond'?
"influential French playwright — by the range of his styles and by his mastery of the new forms — would be Robert Garnier. All of these eclectic traditions would continue to evolve in the ""baroque"" theater of the early 17th century, before French ""classicism"" would finally impose itself. The French Renaissance was rich in a whole body of moral, literary, philological and philosophical writing. Michel de Montaigne was the first essayist of modern times (""The Essays"") and a remarkable writer on the human condition. Étienne Pasquier's ""Recherches de la France"" was another monumental compendium of historical, political and cultural observations."
"support"". Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Lord of Montaigne (; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight; his massive volume ""Essais"" contains some of the most influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on Western writers, including Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albert Hirschman, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac"
"Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Lord of Montaigne (; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight; his massive volume ""Essais"" contains some of the most influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on Western writers, including Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albert Hirschman, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov,"
"such as Jonathan Swift, Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare, who before then had been barely known in France. The success of ""Lettres philosophiques"" and the resulting wave of ""Anglomanie"" made all things English the rage in France, with English food, English styles and English gardens being especially popular. Ultimately, the popularity of ""Anglomanie"" led to a backlash, with H. L. Fougeret de Monbron publishing ""Préservatif contre l'anglomanie"" (""The Antidote to Anglomania"") in 1757, in which he argued for the superiority of French culture and attacked British democracy as mere ""mobocracy"". Anglophilia became popular in the German states in the late"
"made a most original and living type, a type that was repeated in the ""Childe Harold"" and ""Manfred"" of Byron, and even, in some of its manifestations, in the ""Hernani"" of Victor Hugo. In the opinion of Chateaubriand, ""René"" was his masterpiece. Later judgments regarding it are not unanimous, but many authoritative French critics see in it one of the masterpieces of their literature. While Chateaubriand was the first to ""diagnose"" this ""illness"", it is Alfred de Musset who further popularized the notion of a ""mal du siècle"" in his ""La Confession d'un enfant du siècle"" (Confession of a Child"
"and less lachrymose style for Orbe, his native district. Naturally the Reformers of the Suisse Romande used French much in their theological and polemical works. Of more general interest are the writings of two Frenchmen who were driven by religious persecutions to end their lives at Geneva—the memoirs and poems of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné (1552–1630), and the historical writings and poems of Simon Goulart (1543–1628). The great deliverance of Geneva from the duke of Savoy, known as the Escalade (1602), was described in prose by David Piaget (1580–1644) in his ""Histoire de l'escalade"" and celebrated in verse by Samuel Chappuzeau"
"authority except Virgil. In the Renaissance, printed editions and translations of his works became common, including an edition by Erasmus and a commentary by John Calvin. John of Salisbury, Erasmus and others celebrated his works. French essayist Montaigne, who gave a spirited defense of Seneca and Plutarch in his ""Essays"", was himself considered by Pasquier a ""French Seneca."" Similarly, Thomas Fuller praised Joseph Hall as ""our English Seneca."" Many who have considered his ideas not to be particularly original, still argued he was important in making the Greek philosophers presentable and intelligible. His suicide has also been a popular subject"
"Raymond Picard Raymond Picard (6 August 1917 – 5 September 1975) was a French author, prominent Sorbonne professor and Jean Racine scholar. Picard is noted for his scathing tract ""Nouvelle critique ou nouvelle imposture?"" (""New Criticism or New Fraud?""), which was aimed at the ""subjective"" analytical approach of Roland Barthes (as found in ""On Racine"") and other non-traditional approaches by writers and academics of ""New Criticism"", including Lucien Goldmann, Charles Mauron, Jean-Paul Weber and Jean-Pierre Richard. Barthes' response to this critique came in the form of ""Critique et vérité"", which postulated a 'science of criticism' to replace the 'university criticism'"
"published. In the Renaissance, the focus on learning for learning's sake causes an outpouring of literature. Petrarch popularized the sonnet as a poetic form; Giovanni Boccaccio's ""Decameron"" made romance acceptable in prose as well as poetry; François Rabelais rejuvenates satire with ""Gargantua and Pantagruel""; Michel de Montaigne single-handedly invented the essay and used it to catalog his life and ideas. Perhaps the most controversial and important work of the time period was a treatise printed in Nuremberg, entitled ""De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium"": in it, the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus removed the Earth from its privileged position in the universe, which had"
"Eliot describing Gourmont as the ""critical conscience of his generation"". Poetry Fiction Theater Non-fiction In English translation 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 Gourmont is incorrect, albeit common and used by Ezra Pound in translations of his work. Gourmont was born at Bazoches-au-Houlme, Orne, into a publishing family from Cotentin. He was the son of Count Auguste-Marie de Gourmont and his countess, born"
"In 1819, Thomas Campbell concludes that Sidney's life was ""poetry in action,"" and then in 1858 William Stigant wrote that ""Sidney's real poem was his life, and his teaching was his example"". Sidney, the man, is apparent everywhere in his works: a study of Sidney's works is a study of the man. ""An Apology for Poetry"" is one of the most important contributions to literary theory written in English during the Renaissance. Sidney advocates a place for poetry within the framework of an aristocratic state, while showing concern for both literary and national identity. Sidney responds in ""Apology"" to an"
"most famous work, ""Essais"", created the literary genre of the essay. French poetry during that century was embodied by Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay. Both writers founded the La Pléiade literary movement. During the 17th century, Madame de La Fayette published anonymously ""La Princesse de Clèves"", a novel that is considered to be one of the very first psychological novels of all times. Jean de La Fontaine is one of the most famous fabulists of that time, as he wrote hundreds of fables, some being far more famous than others, such as ""The Ant and the Grasshopper"". Generations"
"Moreover, they have the advantage of richness of colour, picturesqueness of phrase, passion, and audacity. Sainte-Beuve compares them to well-minted coins that retain their value, and to keen arrows that ""arrivent brusquement et sifflent encore"". Although situated at the exact opposite of the political spectrum (see French Revolution) the maxims of Antoine de Rivarol are among those that easily compare in acidity and brilliance. Nicolas Chamfort Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, known in his adult life as Nicolas Chamfort and as Sébastien Nicolas de Chamfort (; 6 April 1741 – 13 April 1794), was a French writer, best known for his witty epigrams"
"chancellor of the prince-bishop of Liège. The network through which Sabino's poem circulated is an example, if minor, of how Renaissance humanism proliferated. Herbenus added a short poem and a prose prologue of his own. The manuscript for d'Oupeye ends with short ""argumenta"" or summaries of each book, composed by Paschacius Berselius (d. 1535), a Benedictine monk of St. Laurent's abbey near Liège. The literary critic and poet Henri Bebel (d. ""ca."" 1516), who advised readers to avoid stories that lack beauty and charm, listed Sabino among notable recent writers who ought to be taken seriously. Sabino called himself a"
"An Apology for Poetry An Apology for Poetry (or, The Defence of Poesy) is a work of literary criticism by Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney. It was written in approximately 1580 and first published in 1595, after his death. It is generally believed that he was at least partly motivated by Stephen Gosson, a former playwright who dedicated his attack on the English stage, ""The School of Abuse"", to Sidney in 1579, but Sidney primarily addresses more general objections to poetry, such as those of Plato. In his essay, Sidney integrates a number of classical and Italian precepts on fiction. The"
"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 Gourmont is incorrect, albeit common and used by Ezra Pound in translations of his work. Gourmont was born at Bazoches-au-Houlme, Orne, into a publishing family from Cotentin. He was the son of Count Auguste-Marie de Gourmont and his countess, born Mathilde de Montfort. In 1866 he moved to a manor close to Villedieu near La Manche. He"
"French philosophy French philosophy, here taken to mean philosophy in the French language, has been extremely diverse and has influenced Western philosophy as a whole for centuries, from the medieval scholasticism of Peter Abelard, through the founding of modern philosophy by René Descartes, to 20th century philosophy of science, existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, and postmodernism. Peter Abelard (1079 – April 21, 1142) was a scholastic philosopher, theologian and logician. The story of his affair with and love for Héloïse has become legendary. The ""Chambers Biographical Dictionary"" describes him as ""the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century"". The general"
"Allegory in Renaissance literature Allegory is used extensively in Renaissance literature. Developing from the use of allegory in the Middle Ages, Renaissance literature exhibits an increased emphasis on courtly love, sometimes abandoning intelligibility for deliberately unintelligible allegories. The early modern theory of allegory is discussed in Sir John Harington's Apology for Poetry (included in his translation of Ariosto's Orlando furioso, 1591). Renaissance allegories could be continuous and systematic, or intermittent and occasional. Perhaps the most famous example of a thorough and continuous allegorical work from the Renaissance is the six books of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. In book 4,"
"poem praising the oyster), the ""blason"" of the female body (a poetic description of a body part), and propagandistic verse. Several poets of the period—Jean Antoine de Baïf (who founded an ""Académie de Poésie et Musique"" in 1570), Blaise de Vigenère and others—attempted to adapt into French the Latin, Greek or Hebrew poetic meters; these experiments were called ""vers mesurés"" and ""prose mesuré"" (for more, see the article ""musique mesurée""). Although the royal court was the center of much of the century's poetry, Lyon – the second largest city in France in the Renaissance – also had its poets and"
"François-René de Chateaubriand François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (; ; 4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848), was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who founded Romanticism in French literature. Descended from an old aristocratic family from Brittany, Chateaubriand was a royalist by political disposition. In an age when a number of intellectuals turned against the Church, he authored the ""Génie du christianisme"" in defense of the Catholic faith. His works include the autobiography ""Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe"" (""""Memoirs from Beyond the Grave""""), published posthumously in 1849–1850. Historian Peter Gay says that Chateaubriand saw himself as the greatest lover, the greatest writer,"
"a woman. French philosophy French philosophy, here taken to mean philosophy in the French language, has been extremely diverse and has influenced Western philosophy as a whole for centuries, from the medieval scholasticism of Peter Abelard, through the founding of modern philosophy by René Descartes, to 20th century philosophy of science, existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, and postmodernism. Peter Abelard (1079 – April 21, 1142) was a scholastic philosopher, theologian and logician. The story of his affair with and love for Héloïse has become legendary. The ""Chambers Biographical Dictionary"" describes him as ""the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century""."
"but also abroad. For example, Lord Byron was deeply impressed by ""René"". The young Victor Hugo scribbled in a notebook, ""To be Chateaubriand or nothing."" Even his enemies found it hard to avoid his influence. Stendhal, who despised him for political reasons, made use of his psychological analyses in his own book, ""De l'amour"". Chateaubriand was the first to define the ""vague des passions"" (""intimations of passion"") that later became a commonplace of Romanticism: ""One inhabits, with a full heart, an empty world"" (""Génie du Christianisme""). His political thought and actions seem to offer numerous contradictions: he wanted to be"
"the century), the short story, Italian humanist comedies and ""La Celestina"" (by Fernando de Rojas). The most prolific of the French Renaissance comedic authors, Pierre de Larivey, adapted Italian comedies of intrigue by the authors Ludovico Dolce, Niccolò Buonaparte, Lorenzino de' Medici, Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Vincenzo Gabbiani, Girolano Razzi, Luigi Pasqualigo, and Nicolὸ Secchi. Select list of authors and works of Renaissance comedy: In the last decades of the century, four other theatrical modes from Italy — which did not follow the rigid rules of classical theater – flooded the French stage: By the end of the century, the most"
"France spoke local dialects, an official language emerged in Paris and the French language became the preferred language of Europe's aristocracy. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (born in 1500) quipped, ""I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse."" Because of its international status, there was a desire to regulate the French language. Several reforms of the French language worked to make it more uniform. The Renaissance writer François Rabelais (born 1494) helped to shape French as a literary language, Rabelais' French is characterised by the re-introduction of Greek and Latin words. Jacques"
"Albert Thibaudet Albert Thibaudet (1 April 1874 in Tournus, Saône-et-Loire – 16 April 1936 in Geneva) was a French essayist and literary critic. A former student of Henri Bergson, he was a professor of Jean Rousset. He taught at the University of Geneva, and was the co-founder of the Geneva School of literary criticism. He was succeeded in his post by Marcel Raymond. Thibaudet's reputation increased through 1920s and 1930s, in part for his regular articles in the ""Nouvelle Revue Française"" which he wrote from 1912 until his death, as well as for his numerous books. In 1928, the philosopher"
"(1577–1641) and Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). In France, Michel de Montaigne's three volume ""Essais"" in the mid 1500s contain over 100 examples widely regarded as the predecessor of the modern essay. In Italy, Baldassare Castiglione wrote about courtly manners in his essay ""Il Cortigiano"". In the 17th century, the Jesuit Baltasar Gracián wrote about the theme of wisdom. During the Age of Enlightenment, essays were a favored tool of polemicists who aimed at convincing readers of their position; they also featured heavily in the rise of periodical literature, as seen in the works of Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and Samuel"
"natures; the like do they also by their appellations. And this is the principle from whence springeth & groweth the discipline of allegoricall sense' (translated by Pierre de la Primaudaye in ""The French Academie"", London, 1618, p. 671). Allegory in Renaissance literature Allegory is used extensively in Renaissance literature. Developing from the use of allegory in the Middle Ages, Renaissance literature exhibits an increased emphasis on courtly love, sometimes abandoning intelligibility for deliberately unintelligible allegories. The early modern theory of allegory is discussed in Sir John Harington's Apology for Poetry (included in his translation of Ariosto's Orlando furioso, 1591). Renaissance"
"His opponents allowed that the idea of a universal grace by which no one was actually saved unless included in the particular, effective decree of election, was permissible. In this way hypothetical universalism was sanctioned as a permissible view, along with the particularism that had characterized historic Reformed orthodoxy, and a schism in the French Church was avoided. The literary controversy continued for several years longer and developed a large amount of learning and ability, until it was brought to an abrupt close by the political oppressions of the Reformed Church in France. John Davenant (1576–1641), like Amyraut a student"
"an apologue of ""The Talking Animals"" reaching twenty-six cantos. La Motte, writing at a time when this species of literature was universally admired, attributes its popularity to the fact that it manages and flatters amour-propre by inculcating virtue in an amusing manner without seeming to dictate or insist. This was the ordinary 18th-century view of the matter, but Rousseau contested the educational value of instruction given in this indirect form. A work by P. Soullé, ""La Fontaine et ses devanciers"" (1866), is a history of the apologue from the earliest times until its final triumph in France. Montesquieu wrote a"
"such Renaissance figures as Erasmus and Rabelais. The vital realism and pessimism of François Villon, and his countercultural vagabond life, set him apart from the ""rhétoriqueurs"". From the late 1540s on, many of the ""rhétoriqueurs"" were rejected by the French circle of poets around Pierre de Ronsard (sometimes called La Pléiade) who considered them representatives of an outdated medieval tradition. Some of this disdain may have also been tied to class and chauvinism: many of the ""rhétoriqueurs"" were non-noble poets and writers working for the court of the Duchy of Burgundy, while Ronsard's circle was entirely French and dominated by"
"published in the 1850s, it exerted a strong influence on the next generation of poets and artists. The Decadent movement fascinated Parisians, intrigued by Paul Verlaine and above all Arthur Rimbaud, who became the archetypal ""enfant terrible"" of France. Rimbaud's ""Illuminations"" was published in 1886, and subsequently his other works were also published, influencing Surrealists and Modernists during the ""Belle Époque"" and after. Rimbaud's poems were the first works of free verse seen by the French public. Free verse and typographic experimentation also emerged in ""Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard"" by Stéphane Mallarmé, anticipating Dada and concrete"
"mastery of style, introducing a new clearness and precision into French prose and encouraging the development of the language on national lines by emphasizing its most idiomatic elements. Balzac has thus the credit of executing in French prose a reform parallel to Francois de Malherbe's in verse. In 1631 he published a eulogy of King Louis XIII of France entitled ""Le Prince""; in 1652 the ""Socrate chrétien"", and ""Aristippe ou de la Cour"" in 1658. Since 1962, his name is given to the in Angoulême (Charente, France). Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (31 May 1597 – 18"
"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, and is considered a forerunner of the Symbolist movement. His masterpiece is the collection of prose poems ""Gaspard de la Nuit"" published posthumously in 1842; three of its poems were adapted to a homonymous piano suite by Maurice Ravel in 1908. Born in Ceva on 20 April 1807, Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand was the son of Georges and Laure (or"