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{{Short description|French novelist}}
{{incomplete}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=February 2013}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Alain-René Lesage
| image = Alain-René Lesage.png
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1668|5|6|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sarzeau]], [[Brittany]], France
| death_date = {{death date and age|1747|11|17|1668|5|8|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]], [[Picardy]], France
| occupation = [[Novelist]], [[playwright]]
| nationality = French
| period = [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]
}}


'''Alain-René Lesage''' ({{IPA-fr|alɛ̃ ʁəne ləsaʒ}}; 6 May 1668{{snd}}17 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]]'' (1709), and his [[picaresque novel]] ''[[Gil Blas]]'' (1715–1735).
[[Image:Alain-René Lesage.png|thumb|right|200px|Lesage]]
{{French literature (small)}}
'''Alain-René Lesage''' ([[May 8]], [[1668]], [[Sarzeau]] &ndash; [[November 17]], [[1747]], [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]]), also spelled '''Le Sage''' was a [[France|French]] [[novelist]] and [[playwright]] born at [[Sarzeau]], in the peninsula of [[Rhuys]], between the [[Morbihan]] and the sea, [[Brittany]].


==Life==
==Life==

===Youth and education===
===Youth and education===
Claude Lesage, the father of the novelist, held the united positions of advocate, notary and registrar of the royal court in Rhuys. His wife's name was Jeanne Brenugat. Both father and mother died when Lesage was very young, and his property was wasted or embezzled by his guardians. Little is known of his youth except that he went to school with the [[Jesuits]] at [[Vannes]] until he was eighteen. Conjecture has it that he continued his studies at [[Paris]], and he was called to the bar at the capital in 1692. In August 1694 he married the daughter of a joiner, Marie Elizabeth Huyard. She was beautiful but had no fortune, and Lesage had little practice. About this time he encountered an old schoolfellow, the dramatist [[Antoine Danchet]], who is said to have advised him to take up literature. He began as a translator, and published in 1695 a French version of the ''Epistles'' of [[Aristaenetus]], which was not successful. Shortly afterwards he found a valuable patron and adviser in the [[abbe de Lyonne]], who bestowed on him an annuity of 600 livres, and recommended him to exchange the classics for [[Spanish literature]], of which he was himself a student and collector.
Claude Lesage, the father of the novelist, held the united positions of advocate, notary and registrar of the royal court in Rhuys. His mother's name was Jeanne Brenugat. Both Lesage's father and mother died when Lesage was very young, and he was left in the care of his uncle who wasted his education and fortune.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=486}} Bochard, of the Order of the [[Jesuits]], Principal of the College in [[Vannes]], became interested in the boy on account of his natural talents. Bochard cultivated Lesage's taste for literature. At age 25, Lesage went to Paris in 1693 "to pursue his philosophical studies".
In August 1694, he married the daughter of a joiner, Marie Elizabeth Huyard. She was beautiful but had no fortune, and Lesage had little practice. About this time he encountered an old schoolfellow, the dramatist [[Antoine Danchet]], who is said to have advised him to take up literature. He began as a translator, and published in 1695 a French version of the ''Epistles'' of [[Aristaenetus]], which was not successful. Shortly afterwards he found a valuable patron and adviser in the [[Abbé de Lyonne]], who bestowed on him an annuity of 600 livres, and recommended him to exchange the classics for [[Spanish literature]], of which he was himself a student and collector.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=486}} Spanish literature was once very popular in France when the queens of the house of Austria sat upon the throne, but had become neglected by Lesage's time.


===First literary efforts===
===First literary efforts===
[[File:DevilUponTwoSticks1708.jpg|thumb|300px|Frontispiece and titlepage of a 1708 English edition of ''The Devil upon Two Sticks'', aka ''Le Diable boiteux''.]]
Lesage began by translating plays chiefly from [[Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla]] and [[Lope de Vega]]. ''Le Traitre puni'' and ''Le Point d'honneur'' from the former and ''Don Felix de Mendoce'' from the latter were acted or published in the first two or three years of the [[18th century]]. In 1704 he translated the continuation of ''[[Don Quixote]]'' by [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]], and soon afterwards adapted a play from [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca]], ''Don Cesar Ursin'', which was successful at court and damned in the city. Lesage was, however, nearly forty before he obtained decided success. In 1707 his farce, ''Crispin rival de son maitre,'' was acted with great applause, and ''Le Diable boiteux'' was published and ran to several editions. Lesage altered and improved this play in 1725, giving it its present form. Notwithstanding the success of ''Crispin'', the actors did not like Lesage, and refused a small piece of his called ''Les Etrennes'' (1707). He thereupon altered it into ''Turcaret'', his theatrical masterpiece, and one of the best comedies in French literature. This appeared in 1709.
Lesage began by translating plays chiefly from [[Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla]] and [[Lope de Vega]]. ''Le Traître puni'' and ''Le Point d'honneur'' from the former and ''Don Félix de Mendoce'' from the latter were acted or published in the first two or three years of the 18th century. In 1704, he translated the continuation of ''[[Don Quixote]]'' by [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]], and soon afterwards adapted a play from [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca]], ''Don César Ursin'', which was successful at court and damned in the city. Lesage was, however, nearly forty before he obtained decided success. In 1707, his farce, ''[[Crispin rival de son maître]]'', was well received, and [[Le Diable boiteux (novel)|''Le Diable boiteux'']] (with a [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] by [[Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels]]) was published and ran to several editions. Lesage altered and improved this play in 1725, giving it its present form. Notwithstanding the success of ''Crispin'', the actors did not like Lesage, and refused a small piece of his called ''Les Étrennes'' (1707). He thereupon altered it into ''[[Turcaret]]'' (1709), considered his theatrical masterpiece.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=486}} Around this time his publisher Claude Barbin also asked Lesage to rework [[François Pétis de la Croix]]'s translation of Turkish tales {{lang|fr|Les mille et un jours}} (1710–12) into marketable French, and included two of these stories at the end of the eighth volume of [[Antoine Galland]]'s ''[[Les mille et une nuits]]'' (1709).<ref name="Karateke 1997">{{cite journal | last=Karateke | first=Hakan T. | title=The Politics of Translation: Two Stories from the Turkish ''Ferec baʿde Şidde'' in ''Les mille et une nuit, contes arabes'' | journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies | publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] | volume=74 | issue=2 | year=2015 | pages=211–224 | doi=10.1086/682237 | jstor=10.1086/682237 | s2cid=156007752 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/682237 }}</ref>


===Prose writings===
===Prose writings===
Some years passed before he again attempted romance writing, and then the first two parts of ''Gil Blas de Santillane'' were published in 1715, without the popularity of ''Le Diable boiteux''. Lesage worked at it for a long time, and did not bring out the third part till 1724, nor the fourth till 1735. During these twenty years he was, however, continually busy. Notwithstanding the great merit and success of ''Turcaret'' and ''Crispin'', the [[Theatre Francais]] did not welcome him, and in 1715 he began to write for the [[Théatre de la Foire]], the comic opera held in booths at festival time. According to one computation he produced, either alone or with others, about a hundred pieces, varying from strings of songs with no regular dialogues, to comediettas only distinguished from regular plays by the introduction of music. He was also industrious in prose fiction. Besides finishing ''Gil Blas'' he translated the ''Orlando innamorato'' (1721), rearranged ''Guzman d'Alfarache'' (1732), published two more or less original novels, ''Le Bachelier de Salamanque'' and ''Estevanitte Gonzales'', and in 1733 produced the ''Vie et aventures de M. de Beauchesne'', which resembles certain works of [[Daniel Defoe]]. Besides all this, Lesage was also the author of ''La Valise trouvee'', a collection of imaginary letters, and of some minor pieces, of which ''Une journee des parques'' is the most remarkable. He did not retire until 1740, when he was more than seventy years of age; he and his wife went to live with his second son, who was a canon at [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]]. (Lesage's eldest son had become an actor, and Lesage had disowned him.) Lesage's last work, 'Melange amusant de saitties d'esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants'', appeared in 1743. He died on the 17th of November 1747.
Some years passed before he again attempted romance writing, and then the first two parts of ''Gil Blas de Santillane'' were published in 1715, without the popularity of ''Le Diable boiteux''. Lesage worked at it for a long time, and did not bring out the third part till 1724, nor the fourth till 1735. During these twenty years he was, however, continually busy. Notwithstanding the great merit and success of ''Turcaret'' and ''Crispin'', the [[Théâtre Français]] did not welcome him, and in 1715 he began to write for the [[Théâtre de la foire]], the comic opera held in booths at festival time. According to one computation he produced, either alone or with others, about a hundred pieces, varying from strings of songs with no regular dialogues, to comediettas only distinguished from regular plays by the introduction of music. He was also industrious in prose fiction. Besides finishing ''[[Gil Blas]]'' he translated the ''[[Orlando innamorato]]'' (1721), rearranged ''Guzman d'Alfarache'' (1732), published two more or less original novels, ''Le Bachelier de Salamanque'' and ''Estevanille Gonzalez'', and in 1732<ref name="DCB">{{cite web |title=Biography – CHEVALIER, Beauchêne, ROBERT – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chevalier_robert_2E.html |website=www.biographi.ca |access-date=8 March 2019}}</ref> produced ''Les avantures de monsieur Robert Chevalier, dit de Beauchêne, capitaine de flibustiers dans la Nouvelle-France'', which resembles certain works of [[Daniel Defoe]]. Besides all this, Lesage was also the author of ''La Valise trouvée'', a collection of imaginary letters, and of some minor pieces including ''Une journée des Parques''. He did not retire until 1740, when he was more than seventy years of age; he and his wife went to live with his second son, who was a canon at [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]]. Lesage's eldest son, Louis-André, had become an actor, and Lesage had disowned him. Lesage's last work, ''Mélange amusant de saillies d'esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants'', appeared in 1743.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=486}}


===Retirement===
==Lesage's character and importance==
With his wife he had three sons and a daughter whose filial piety made her devote her entire life to serving her genius father. Though he lived happily, one event embittered Lesage for years. His eldest son had been educated for the bar, but insisted going on stage. Lesage, who had often painted the life of the actor in the most ridiculous and hateful aspect, was pained by his son's career choice, especially when his son joined the Théâtre Français, against which Lesage had long waged a satirical war. Probably out of deference to his father, the son took the name Montménil, and by the merit of his talents and private character, soon entered the upper society of Paris. Lesage was reconciled with his son many years later and became so devoted to Montménil that he could barely leave his side.
Very little is known of Lesage's life and personality. The few anecdotes which we have of him represent him as a man of very independent temper, declining to accept the condescending patronage which in the earlier part of the century was still the portion of men of letters. Thus it is said that, when someone rudely reprimanded him for an unavoidable delay in appearing at the [[Duchess of Bouillon]]'s house to read ''Turcaret'', he put the play in his pocket and left, refusing absolutely to return. It may be said that as in time so in position he occupies a place apart from most of the great writers of the [[17th century|17th]] and 18th centuries. He was not the object of royal patronage like the first, nor the pet of salons and coteries like the second. Indeed, he seems all his life to have been purely domestic in his habits, and purely literary in his interests.


Montménil caught cold during a hunting party and died on 8 September 1743. This was such a severe blow to Lesage that he retired forever from Paris and the world. Lesage's youngest son had also become an actor under the name Pittenec, so Lesage and his wife saw out their old age in the home of their second son who had become the [[Abbé]] Lesage. This son had been made a Canon of the Cathedral of Boulogne, through the patronage of the queen, and been bestowed a fair pension.
The importance of Lesage in French and in European literature is not entirely the same, and he has the rare distinction of being more important in the latter than in the former. His literary work may be divided into three parts. The first contains his ''Theatre de la Foire'' and his few miscellaneous writings, the second his two remarkable plays ''Crispin'' and ''Turcaret'', the third his prose fictions. In the first two he swims within the general literary current in France; he can and must be compared with others of his own nation. But in the third he emerges altogether from merely national comparison. It is not with Frenchmen that he is to be measured. He formed no school in France; he followed no French models. His work, admirable as it is from the mere point of view of style and form, is a parenthesis in the general development of the French novel. That product works its way from [[Madame de la Fayette]] through [[Pierre de Marivaux]] and [[Prévost]], not through Lesage. His literary ancestors are Spaniards, his literary contemporaries and successors are Englishmen.


Lesage lived beyond 80 years of age, but was afflicted with deafness and had to use an ear trumpet. However, his conversation was so delightful that when he ventured into the world and frequented his favourite coffee house in Rue St. Jacques in Paris, guests would gather around him, climbing onto tables and chairs, to hear his famous words of wit and wisdom.
==Works for the stage==
Lesage's miscellaneous work, including his numerous farce-[[operetta]]s, are the very best kind of literary hack-work. His original style, his abundant wit, his cool, humoristic attitude towards human life, are discernible throughout. But this portion of his work is practically forgotten. ''Crispin'' and ''Turcaret'' show a stronger and more deeply marked genius, which, but for the ill-will of the actors, might have gone far in this direction. But Lesage's peculiar unwillingness to attempt anything absolutely new discovered itself here. Even when he had devoted himself to the Foire theatre, it seems that he was unwilling to attempt a piece with only one actor, a crux which [[Alexis Piron]], a lesser but a bolder genius, accepted and carried through. ''Crispin'' and ''Turcaret'' are unquestionably [[Molière]]sque, though they are perhaps more original in their following of Molière than any other plays that can be named. For this also was part of Lesage's idiosyncrasy that, while he was apparently unable or unwilling to strike out an entirely novel line for himself, he had no sooner entered upon the beaten path than he left it to follow his own devices.


Alain-René Lesage died on 17 November 1747.
===Crispin===
''Crispin rival de son maitre'' (''Crispin, his master's rival'') is a farce in one act and many scenes. Its plot concerns the effort of a knavish valet, not as usual to further his masters interests, but to supplant that master in love and gain. The charm of the piece consists first in the lively bustling action of the short scenes which take each other up so promptly and smartly that the spectator has not time to cavil at the improbability of the action, and secondly in the abundant wit of the dialogue.


===Turcaret===
==Personality==
Very little is known of Lesage's life and personality. Various anecdotes represent him as a very independent man, declining to accept the literary patronage required to survive.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=486}} One story tells of the time he had been entreated to read his manuscript (according to the fashion of the day) at the [[Hôtel de Bouillon]] by the Duchess. The hour appointed for the reading was noon, but the dramatist was still very interested in legal matters and was detained until 1 o'clock attending the decision of a lawsuit. When he finally appeared at the [[Hôtel]] and attempted to apologise, the [[Duchess of Bouillon]] was so cold and haughty, observing that he had made her guests lose one hour waiting for his arrival. "It is easy to make up the loss madame", replied Lesage; "I will not read my comedy, and thus you will gain two hours." With that, he left the Hôtel and could never be persuaded to return to the Duchess's house.
''Turcaret'' is a far more important piece of work and ranks high among comedies dealing with the actual society of their time. The only thing which prevents it from holding the very highest place is a certain want of unity in the plot. This want, however, is compensated in Turcaret by the most masterly profusion of character-drawing in the separate parts. Turcaret, the ruthless, dishonest and dissolute financier, his vulgar wife as dissolute as himself, the harebrained marquis, the knavish chevalier, the baroness (a coquette with the finer edge taken off her fineladyhood, yet by no means unlovable), are each and all finished portraits of the best comic type, while almost as much may be said of the minor characters. The style and dialogue are also worthy of the highest praise; the wit never degenerates into mere wit-combats.

==Novels==
It is, however, as a novelist that the world remembers Lesage. A great deal of unnecessary labor has been spent on the discussion of his claims to originality. What has been already said will give a sufficient clue through this thorny ground. In mere form Lesage is not original: he does little more than adopt that of the Spanish [[Picaresque novel|picaresque]] romance of the 16th and 17th century. Often, too, he prefers merely to rearrange and adapt existing work, and still oftener to give himself a kind of start by adopting the work of a preceding writer as a basis. But he never, in any work that pretends to originality at all, is guilty of anything that can fairly be called plagiarism. Indeed he is very fond of asserting or suggesting his indebtedness when he is really dealing with his own funds. Thus the ''Diable boiteux'' borrows the title, and for a chapter or two the plan and almost the words, of the ''Diablo Cojuelo'' of [[Luis Vélez de Guevara]]. But after a few pages Lesage leaves his predecessor alone. Even the plan of the Spanish original is entirely discarded, and the incidents, the episodes, the style, are as independent as if such a book as the ''Diablo Cojuelo'' had never existed.

===Gil Blas===
The case of ''Gil Blas'' is still more remarkable. It was at first alleged that Lesage had borrowed it from the ''Vida del escudero Marcos de Obregón'' of [[Vicente Espinel]], a curiously rash assertion, inasmuch as that work exists and is easily accessible, and as a consultation of it proves that, though it furnished Lesage with separate incidents and hints for more than one of his books, ''Gil Blas'' as a whole is not in the least indebted to it. Afterwards [[Father Isla]] asserted that ''Gil Blas'' was a translation from an actual Spanish book, an unprovable assertion, since there is no trace whatever of any such book. A third hypothesis is that Lesage may have worked up some manuscript original in his usual way, in the same way, such as he said he did for the ''Bachelor of Salamanca''. This also is incapable of refutation, though the argument from the Bachelor is strong against it, for why should Lesage acknowledge his source in the one case but not the other? Except, however, for historical reasons, the controversy may be safely neglected, nor is there very much importance in the more impartial indication of sources (chiefly works on the history of [[Olivares]]) which has sometimes been attempted. Of course Lesage knew Spanish literature well, but there is as little doubt (with the limitations already laid down) of his real originality as of that of any great writer in the world. ''Gil Blas'' remains his property, and is the capital example of its own style.

In the score of his [[Violin Concerto (Elgar)|Violin Concerto]], Sir [[Edward Elgar]] wrote the Spanish inscription, ''"Aqui está encerrada el alma de ....."'' (''"Herein is enshrined the soul of ....."''), a quotation from ''Gil Blas''.

===Lesage's style===
For Lesage has not only the characteristic, which [[Homer]] and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] have, of absolute truth to human nature as distinguished from truth to this or that national character, but he has what has been called the quality of detachment, which they also have. He never takes sides with his characters as [[Henry Fielding]] sometimes does (though Lesage and [[Miguel de Cervantes|Cervantes]] are certainly Fielding's greatest influences). He describes ''Asmodeus'' and ''Don Cleofas'', ''Gil Blas'' and the Archbishop and ''Doctor Sangrado'' with exactly the same impartiality of attitude. Except that he brought into novel writing this highest quality of artistic truth, it perhaps cannot be said that he did much to advance prose fiction in itself. He invented no new genre; he did not, as [[Pierre de Marivaux]] and [[Antoine François Prévost]] did, help on the novel as distinguished from the romance. In form his books are undistinguishable, not merely from the Spanish romances which are their direct originals, but from the medieval Romans adventures and the [[Greece|Greek]] prose romances. But in individual excellence they have few rivals. Nor should it be forgotten, as it sometimes is, that Lesage was a great master of French style, the greatest unquestionably between the classics of the 17th century and the classics of the 18th. He is perhaps the last great writer before the decadent style of the ''[[philosophe]]'s. His style is perfectly easy at the same time that it is often admirably [[epigram]]matic. It has plenty of color, plenty of flexibility, and may be said to be exceptionally well fitted for general literary work.


===Quotations===
===Quotations===
*"Pride and conceit were the original sins of man."
* "Pride and conceit were the original sins of man."
*"Facts are stubborn things."
* "Facts are stubborn things."


==Works==
==Works==
'''Translations and adaptations'''

* ''Le Traître puni'', 1700
'''Translations and adaptions'''
*''Le Traitre puni''
* ''Don Félix de Mendoce'', 1700
*''Point d'honneur'' ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N082252 French version])
* ''Point d'honneur'', 1702 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N082252 French version])
* ''Second Book of the Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha'', 1704
*''Don Felix de Mendoce''
* ''Orlando innamorato'', 1721
*''Second Book of the Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha''
* ''Guzman d'Alfarache'', 1732 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088837 French version])
*''Orlando innamorato'', 1721
*''Guzman d'Alfarache'', 1732 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088837 French version])


'''Plays'''
'''Plays'''
*''Don Cesar Ursin'' ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N009897 French version])
* ''Don César Ursin'', 1707 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N009897 French version])
*''Les Etrennes'', 1707
* ''Les Étrennes'', 1707
*''Crispin rival de son maitre'', 1707 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N070764 French version])
* ''[[Crispin rival de son maître]]'', 1707 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N070764 French version])
*''Turcaret'', 1709
* ''[[Turcaret]]'', 1709
* ''[[Arlequin roi de Serendib]]'', 1713
* ''[[La Foire de Guibray]]'', 1714
* ''[[Arlequin Mahomet]]'', 1714
* ''La Statue merveilleuse'' (fair play, with d'Orneval), 1720 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZEGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA291 <!--291:play starts here in this collection--> French version])
* ''La Boîte de Pandore'' 1721, comedy in 1 act.<ref>''Petite bibliothèque des théâtres'', Paris, 1789, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iT80AAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Pandore%22++piece+de+theatre+-boite&pg=PA68 vol.62 pp.67-8]</ref>


'''Novels'''
'''Novels'''
*''Le Diable boiteux, 1707.'' ([http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/lfa/activites/textes/diable_boiteux/V1-NOTES.html French version])
* [[Le Diable boiteux (novel)|''Le Diable boiteux'']], 1707. ([https://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/lfa/activites/textes/diable_boiteux/V1-NOTES.html French version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716230631/http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/lfa/activites/textes/diable_boiteux/V1-NOTES.html |date=16 July 2012 }}) (tr. ''The Devil upon Two Sticks'', ''The Devil on Two Sticks''; [http://www.exclassics.com/devil/devlintr.htm English version])
*''Gil Blas'' ([http://www.exclassics.com/gilblas/gilconts.htm English version], [http://abu.cnam.fr/cgi-bin/go?gilblas1 French])
* ''[[Gil Blas]]'' ([http://www.exclassics.com/gilblas/gilconts.htm English version], [http://abu.cnam.fr/cgi-bin/go?gilblas1 French])
**''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres I-VI), 1715.'' ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N080493 French version])
** ''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres I–VI)'', 1715. ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N080493 French version])
**''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres VII-IX), 1724.'' ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N080494 French version])
** ''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres VII–IX)'', 1724. ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N080494 French version])
**''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres X-XII), 1735.'' ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N108005 French version])
** ''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres X–XII)'', 1735. ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N108005 French version])
**''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, 1747.'' -
** ''Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane'', 1747.
*''Vie et aventures de M. de Beauchesne'', 1733 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088834 French version]
* ''Les avantures de monsieur Robert Chevalier, dit de Beauchêne, capitaine de flibustiers dans la Nouvelle-France'', 1732<ref name="DCB" /> ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088834 French version])
*''Le Bachelier de Salamanque, 1736.'' ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088839 French version])
* ''Le Bachelier de Salamanque'', 1736. ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088839 French version])
* ''Estevanille Gonzalez'', 1732* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/alain-rene-lesage/gil-blas/tobias-smollett}}* ''La Valise trouvée'', 1740 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088838 French version])
*'' Estevanitte Gonzales'', 1732
* ''Mélange amusant de saillies d'esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants'', 1743
*''La Valise trouvee'' ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N088838 French version])
*''Melange amusant de saitties d'esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants'', 1743


==Bibliography==
== External links ==
* Francis Assaf - ''Lesage et le picaresque'' (A.-G. Nizet, 1983) {{ISBN|2-7078-1032-0}}
{{wikiquote}}
* Christelle Bahier-Porte - ''La Poétique d'Alain-René Lesage'' (Champion, 2006) {{ISBN|978-2-7453-1406-2}}
* {{gutenberg author| id=Alain+René+Le+Sage | name=Alain-René Lesage}}
* V. Barberet - ''Lesage et le théâtre de la foire'' ([https://books.google.com/books?id=kSgrAAAAYAAJ&dq=intitle%3Alesage%20intitle%3Afoire%20inauthor%3Abarberet&pg=PA3 Paul Sordoillet, 1887]), (Slatkine Reprints, 1970)
* Roger Laufer - ''Lesage; ou, Le métier de romancier'' (Gallimard, 1971)
* Tobias Smollet's Prefatory Memoir in his 1893 English translation of Le Sage's "The Adventures of Gil Blas"


==References==
{{1911}}
{{Reflist}}
'''Attribution:'''
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Le Sage, Alain René|volume=16|pages=486-487|first=George|last=Saintsbury|authorlink=George Saintsbury}} That entry includes a long critical appraisal by Saintsbury.
*{{Catholic|wstitle=Alain-René Le Sage}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://data.bnf.fr/11912638/alain-rene_lesage/ Alain-René Lesage] on [[data.bnf.fr]]
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/alain-rene-lesage}}
* {{Gutenberg author| id=6207| name=Alain-René Lesage}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=(("Le Sage" OR "Lesage") AND (Alain))}}
* {{Librivox author |id=10537}}
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Alain-René Le Sage |short=x}}


{{Alain-René Lesage|state=collapsed}}
[[Category:1668 births|Lesage, Alain-René]]
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1747 deaths|Lesage, Alain-René]]
[[Category:French dramatists and playwrights|Lesage, Alain-René]]
[[Category:French novelists|Lesage, Alain-René]]


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[[de:Alain Lesage]]
[[Category:1668 births]]
[[es:Alain-René Lesage]]
[[Category:1747 deaths]]
[[eo:Alain René Lesage]]
[[Category:18th-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[fr:Alain-René Lesage]]
[[Category:18th-century French lawyers]]
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[[Category:18th-century French male writers]]
[[hu:Alain René Lesage]]
[[Category:18th-century French novelists]]
[[pl:Alain-René Lesage]]
[[Category:18th-century French translators]]
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[[Category:People from Sarzeau]]
[[ru:Лесаж, Ален Рене]]
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Latest revision as of 00:02, 11 May 2024

Alain-René Lesage
Born(1668-05-06)6 May 1668
Sarzeau, Brittany, France
Died17 November 1747(1747-11-17) (aged 79)
Boulogne-sur-Mer, Picardy, France
OccupationNovelist, playwright
NationalityFrench
PeriodEnlightenment

Alain-René Lesage (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ ʁəne ləsaʒ]; 6 May 1668 – 17 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 (1709), and his picaresque novel Gil Blas (1715–1735).

Life[edit]

Youth and education[edit]

Claude Lesage, the father of the novelist, held the united positions of advocate, notary and registrar of the royal court in Rhuys. His mother's name was Jeanne Brenugat. Both Lesage's father and mother died when Lesage was very young, and he was left in the care of his uncle who wasted his education and fortune.[1] Bochard, of the Order of the Jesuits, Principal of the College in Vannes, became interested in the boy on account of his natural talents. Bochard cultivated Lesage's taste for literature. At age 25, Lesage went to Paris in 1693 "to pursue his philosophical studies".

In August 1694, he married the daughter of a joiner, Marie Elizabeth Huyard. She was beautiful but had no fortune, and Lesage had little practice. About this time he encountered an old schoolfellow, the dramatist Antoine Danchet, who is said to have advised him to take up literature. He began as a translator, and published in 1695 a French version of the Epistles of Aristaenetus, which was not successful. Shortly afterwards he found a valuable patron and adviser in the Abbé de Lyonne, who bestowed on him an annuity of 600 livres, and recommended him to exchange the classics for Spanish literature, of which he was himself a student and collector.[1] Spanish literature was once very popular in France when the queens of the house of Austria sat upon the throne, but had become neglected by Lesage's time.

First literary efforts[edit]

Frontispiece and titlepage of a 1708 English edition of The Devil upon Two Sticks, aka Le Diable boiteux.

Lesage began by translating plays chiefly from Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla and Lope de Vega. Le Traître puni and Le Point d'honneur from the former and Don Félix de Mendoce from the latter were acted or published in the first two or three years of the 18th century. In 1704, he translated the continuation of Don Quixote by Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, and soon afterwards adapted a play from Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Don César Ursin, which was successful at court and damned in the city. Lesage was, however, nearly forty before he obtained decided success. In 1707, his farce, Crispin rival de son maître, was well received, and Le Diable boiteux (with a frontispiece by Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels) was published and ran to several editions. Lesage altered and improved this play in 1725, giving it its present form. Notwithstanding the success of Crispin, the actors did not like Lesage, and refused a small piece of his called Les Étrennes (1707). He thereupon altered it into Turcaret (1709), considered his theatrical masterpiece.[1] Around this time his publisher Claude Barbin also asked Lesage to rework François Pétis de la Croix's translation of Turkish tales Les mille et un jours (1710–12) into marketable French, and included two of these stories at the end of the eighth volume of Antoine Galland's Les mille et une nuits (1709).[2]

Prose writings[edit]

Some years passed before he again attempted romance writing, and then the first two parts of Gil Blas de Santillane were published in 1715, without the popularity of Le Diable boiteux. Lesage worked at it for a long time, and did not bring out the third part till 1724, nor the fourth till 1735. During these twenty years he was, however, continually busy. Notwithstanding the great merit and success of Turcaret and Crispin, the Théâtre Français did not welcome him, and in 1715 he began to write for the Théâtre de la foire, the comic opera held in booths at festival time. According to one computation he produced, either alone or with others, about a hundred pieces, varying from strings of songs with no regular dialogues, to comediettas only distinguished from regular plays by the introduction of music. He was also industrious in prose fiction. Besides finishing Gil Blas he translated the Orlando innamorato (1721), rearranged Guzman d'Alfarache (1732), published two more or less original novels, Le Bachelier de Salamanque and Estevanille Gonzalez, and in 1732[3] produced Les avantures de monsieur Robert Chevalier, dit de Beauchêne, capitaine de flibustiers dans la Nouvelle-France, which resembles certain works of Daniel Defoe. Besides all this, Lesage was also the author of La Valise trouvée, a collection of imaginary letters, and of some minor pieces including Une journée des Parques. He did not retire until 1740, when he was more than seventy years of age; he and his wife went to live with his second son, who was a canon at Boulogne-sur-Mer. Lesage's eldest son, Louis-André, had become an actor, and Lesage had disowned him. Lesage's last work, Mélange amusant de saillies d'esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants, appeared in 1743.[1]

Retirement[edit]

With his wife he had three sons and a daughter whose filial piety made her devote her entire life to serving her genius father. Though he lived happily, one event embittered Lesage for years. His eldest son had been educated for the bar, but insisted going on stage. Lesage, who had often painted the life of the actor in the most ridiculous and hateful aspect, was pained by his son's career choice, especially when his son joined the Théâtre Français, against which Lesage had long waged a satirical war. Probably out of deference to his father, the son took the name Montménil, and by the merit of his talents and private character, soon entered the upper society of Paris. Lesage was reconciled with his son many years later and became so devoted to Montménil that he could barely leave his side.

Montménil caught cold during a hunting party and died on 8 September 1743. This was such a severe blow to Lesage that he retired forever from Paris and the world. Lesage's youngest son had also become an actor under the name Pittenec, so Lesage and his wife saw out their old age in the home of their second son who had become the Abbé Lesage. This son had been made a Canon of the Cathedral of Boulogne, through the patronage of the queen, and been bestowed a fair pension.

Lesage lived beyond 80 years of age, but was afflicted with deafness and had to use an ear trumpet. However, his conversation was so delightful that when he ventured into the world and frequented his favourite coffee house in Rue St. Jacques in Paris, guests would gather around him, climbing onto tables and chairs, to hear his famous words of wit and wisdom.

Alain-René Lesage died on 17 November 1747.

Personality[edit]

Very little is known of Lesage's life and personality. Various anecdotes represent him as a very independent man, declining to accept the literary patronage required to survive.[1] One story tells of the time he had been entreated to read his manuscript (according to the fashion of the day) at the Hôtel de Bouillon by the Duchess. The hour appointed for the reading was noon, but the dramatist was still very interested in legal matters and was detained until 1 o'clock attending the decision of a lawsuit. When he finally appeared at the Hôtel and attempted to apologise, the Duchess of Bouillon was so cold and haughty, observing that he had made her guests lose one hour waiting for his arrival. "It is easy to make up the loss madame", replied Lesage; "I will not read my comedy, and thus you will gain two hours." With that, he left the Hôtel and could never be persuaded to return to the Duchess's house.

Quotations[edit]

  • "Pride and conceit were the original sins of man."
  • "Facts are stubborn things."

Works[edit]

Translations and adaptations

  • Le Traître puni, 1700
  • Don Félix de Mendoce, 1700
  • Point d'honneur, 1702 (French version)
  • Second Book of the Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, 1704
  • Orlando innamorato, 1721
  • Guzman d'Alfarache, 1732 (French version)

Plays

Novels

Bibliography[edit]

  • Francis Assaf - Lesage et le picaresque (A.-G. Nizet, 1983) ISBN 2-7078-1032-0
  • Christelle Bahier-Porte - La Poétique d'Alain-René Lesage (Champion, 2006) ISBN 978-2-7453-1406-2
  • V. Barberet - Lesage et le théâtre de la foire (Paul Sordoillet, 1887), (Slatkine Reprints, 1970)
  • Roger Laufer - Lesage; ou, Le métier de romancier (Gallimard, 1971)
  • Tobias Smollet's Prefatory Memoir in his 1893 English translation of Le Sage's "The Adventures of Gil Blas"

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Saintsbury 1911, p. 486.
  2. ^ Karateke, Hakan T. (2015). "The Politics of Translation: Two Stories from the Turkish Ferec baʿde Şidde in Les mille et une nuit, contes arabes". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 74 (2). University of Chicago Press: 211–224. doi:10.1086/682237. JSTOR 10.1086/682237. S2CID 156007752.
  3. ^ a b "Biography – CHEVALIER, Beauchêne, ROBERT – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  4. ^ Petite bibliothèque des théâtres, Paris, 1789, vol.62 pp.67-8

Attribution:

External links[edit]

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