Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon

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Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon (born July 8, 1708 in Voisenon ; † November 22, 1775 ibid) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman, writer and member of the Académie française .

Life

Vicar General and Commendatar Abbot

Claude-Henri de Fusée, Count von Voisenon, came from the count family Fusée de Voisenon (also: Fuzée de Voisenon ). His mother died shortly after giving birth. He was an asthmatic all his life. His older brother became a general, he himself was traditionally intended for the clergy, but entered this career only later and was ordained a priest late. He was vicar general of his relative, Bishop Jean-Marie Henriau (1661-1738) of Boulogne , but refused to be his successor. His relations with the court brought him the benefices of a commendate abbot of the Abbey of La Chapelle-aux-Planches in Puellemontier and from 1742 the Abbey of Le Jard in Voisenon.

Homme de Lettres

From then on he lived as the embodiment of the secular clergy with literary inclinations, which was not uncommon in the French 18th century. He frequented the Parisian literary salons, first and foremost that of his godmother Madame Doublet , where he met Charles-Simon Favart and his wife Madame Favart , with whom he formed a kind of life and creative community for the production of numerous plays. He was also known in the salons of Madame Geoffrin and Madame d'Épinay . Other circles in which he went in and out surrounded the Duke Louis-César de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière (1708-1780) in Montrouge (Voisenon was known as the "Bishop of Montrouge"), Madame de Pompadour in Étiolles and the Duchess of Maine at Sceaux . In addition, he belonged (like numerous intellectuals) to the (a parodic counterculture cultivating) Société du bout du banc of the actress Jeanne-Françoise Quinault (1699–1783).

Member of the Académie française

In 1762 he was elected to the Académie française (seat no. 13) with the support of Madame de Pompadour. The minister Choiseul gave him a pension in 1765 to pay for the Dauphin, later Louis XVI. to write historical essays. He was friends with Finance Minister Joseph Marie Terray . Prince-Bishop Damian August von Speyer appointed him his ambassador to the French royal court in 1771. He died in 1775 at the age of 67. His last partner, Élisabeth-Marie-Constance-Bénédicte-Sophie de Lowendal, comtesse Turpin de Crissé (1742–1785), daughter of Marshal Ulrich von Löwendal , organized a complete edition of his works in 5 volumes in 1781 (with a biography in vol the title Précis historique de la vie de M. l'abbé de Voisenon ).

Voisenon today

Of his numerous works, it is above all the erotic stories that are present today, in which, in the manner of the French 18th century, he used a covert, allusive language. The best known is the novel Le Sultan Misapouf et la princesse Grisemine (1746), which was published in 2002 by Patrick Wald Lasowski in Volume 472 of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade Romanciers libertins du XVIIIe siècle (Vol. 1).

Works (if translated into German)

  • Isabelle Et Gertrude, Ou Les Sylphes Supposés . Comédie en un acte, Mèlée d'Ariettes. Without a year.
    • (German) Isabella and Gertraude, or, Die erdichte Luft-Geister . Lust game all in one. Mannheim 1767.
  • (with Charles-Simon Favart) L'Amitié à l'épreuve . Without a year.
    • (German) Friendship put to the test . A touching comedy in 5 acts. Leipzig 1768.
    • Friendship to the test . An operetta in two acts. Vienna 1780.
  • La Jeune Grecque, comédie en trois actes et en vers. 1762
    • (German) The young Greek woman . A comedy in three acts. Vienna 1772.
  • L'Amant déguisé, ou le Jardinier supposé, comédie en 1 acte, mêlée d'ariettes . 1769.
    • (German) The disguised lover or the disguised gardener . A Singspiel in one act. Frankfurt am Main 1774.
  • Coulouf . Without a year.
    • (German) Schalk Amor, or The Divorced Woman . A comedy in three acts. With mixed chants and dances. Leipzig 1784.
  • Three gallant stories by the Abbé von Voisenon . Berlin 1918. (translated by Alfred Semerau ).
  • Les exercices de dévotion de Monsieur Henri Roch avec Madame la Duchesse de Condor . Without a year.
    • (German) The love exercises . Heyne, Munich 1976.

literature

  • Jean-Pierre Beaumarchais: Voisenon. In: Jean-Pierre Beaumarchais, Daniel Couty, Alain Rey (eds.): Dictionnaire des écrivains de langue française. Larousse, Paris 2001, p. 2029.
  • Jean Comoy: Un abbé de cour sous Louis XV. Monsieur de Voisenon, 1708-1775 . Paris 1959.
  • Patrick Krakowski: Un académicien dans son temps. L'abbé de Voisenon (correspondances, chroniques, biography) . Lys Éditions Ammatéis, Dammarie-les-Lys 2007.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Voisenon, Claude-Henri de Fusée de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Voisenon, Claude-Henri de Fuzée de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Roman Catholic clergyman, writer and member of the Académie française
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1708
PLACE OF BIRTH Voisenon
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1775
Place of death Voisenon