Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines

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Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines , copper engraving by Georg Friedrich Schmidt , after the painter Louis Toqué , 1742

Abbé Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines , (* 1685 in Rouen , † December 16, 1745 in Paris ), was a French literary critic , journalist and writer .

Life

Desfontaine's upbringing was in a college of a Jesuit order , which he joined at the age of fifteen. There he was appointed professor of rhetoric at Bourges . In 1717 he left the order and devoted himself to the beautiful sciences , became a collaborator at the Journal des sçavans and wrote, among others, with Élie Catherine Fréron , Jacques Destrées (1700–1788), François Granet (1692–1741) the critical writings Le Nouvelliste du Parnasse ( 1731–34, 5 vols.) And Observations sur les écrits modern (1735 ff.). Especially through Observations sur les écrits modern , he got into a violent argument with Voltaire . In Voltaire's Critique of the Observations sur les écrits modern (1738), he responded with the scandalous and defamatory libel Voltairomanie (1738).

Desfontaines caused several scandals through his homosexual activities, which continued into old age. His sexual preference, in the linguistic rule "pour s'être diverti contre les règles" at that time, caused his exclusion from the Jesuit order in 1717 . In 1725 he was imprisoned in Bicêtre Detention Center for three weeks for homosexual activity . He owed his release to Voltaire's use by his influential patrons. However, Voltaire also appears to be involved in the 1724 denunciation . In response to Desfontaines' attacks that began later, Voltaire called the latter a "monster of ingratitude" and feuded Desfontaines until the end of his life.

Works (selection)

as an author
  • Nouvelle Histoire de France . 1730.
  • Mark H. Waddicor (Ed.): La Voltairomanie . University Press, Exeter 1983, ISBN 0-85989-149-6 (reprinted from Paris 1738 edition).
  • Racine vengé, ou “examen des remarques grammaticales” de M. l'Abbé Pierre Joseph d'Olivet , sur les œuvres de Racine . Avignon 1739.
  • Memories for the service of the history of the calotte . Paris 1702/25 (together with Guillaume Plantavit de LaPause de Margon, Jean Aymon and François Gacon).
  • Suite de la nouvelle cyropedie, ou reflexions de Cyrus sur ses voyages . Wetstein, Rouen 1728.
  • Le nouveau Gulliver, ou Voyage de Jean Gulliver, fils du Capitaine Gulliver . Clouzier / François le Breton, Paris 1730
    • Der Neue Gulliver, or Die Reise J. Gulliver, son of Capitain Lemuel Gulliver ... translated as best possible by Selimantes . Thomas von Wiering's heirs, Hamburg / Hertels Handlung, Leipzig 1731 GDZ Göttingen
  • The life and the wonderful incidents of Frau von Barneveldt ("Mémoires de Madame de Barneveldt"). Pietsch, Breslau 1742 (2 vols., Together with Jean du Castre d'Auvigny).
as translator
  • Jonathan Swift : Voyages de Gulliver . Gabriel Martin / Hippolite-Louis Guérin / Coustelier, Paris 1727
  • Virgil : Les Œuvres . Compagnie des Librairies, Amsterdam 1743 (2 vols.).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Records and stories of the Regiment de la Calotte
  2. ↑ s. a .: Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels .
personal data
SURNAME Desfontaines, Pierre François Guyot
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Desfontaines, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French literary critic, journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1685
PLACE OF BIRTH Rouen
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1745
Place of death Paris