Robert Challe
Robert Challe , also Challes , (born August 17, 1659 in Paris , † January 25, 1721 in Chartres ) was a French traveler and writer.
Life
Robert Challe came from a middle-class background. The father, Jean Charles, was a businessman, the mother Simone, b. Raymond, came from a similar background.
The young Robert attended high school (Collège de la Marche) at the University of Paris and was taught classical humanism and science. This was followed by a degree in rhetoric , philosophy and law . There he met Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Seignelay , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. Jean-Baptiste was the eldest son of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), Minister of the Navy under Louis XIV . He succeeded his father in office.
After a short time as a lawyer, he went to Canada at the end of 1681 , as a business partner of his two uncles in a fishing company. During his time in Canada (1682–1688) he made several trips. He worked as a trader, inspector and colonialist (settlement of French emigrants). Travels took him to Holland and Scandinavia, to Lisbon, Rome, Constantinople and Jerusalem. In 1688 he fell into the hands of English privateers and was abducted to Boston . After paying a ransom, he returned to Paris via Lisbon . Financially he was ruined.
From 1688 to 1694, thanks to Seignelay, he found a new job as a royal scribe (Écricain de Roi) with the French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales), a half-state, half-private corporation. He went on the Écueil , in the activity of a ship manager and notary.
In 1690 he took part in a voyage to the East Indies in a fleet of six ships: the flagship Gaillard , the Florissant , the Oiseau , the Dragon , the Lion , and his ship, the Écueil . The squadron was given the task of buying goods, bringing an embassy of mandarins back to Siam and , if possible, capturing English and Dutch ships. The Southeast Asian diary comes from this trip and was published after his death under the title “Journal d'un Voyage fait aux Indes Orientales 1690-1691”. In 1692 he took part in the naval battle of Barfleur against the British and Dutch. In 1694 he was dismissed from the service. Then he worked as a writer.
His free-spirited attitude and the pamphlets about the infallibility of the Pope finally brought him to the exile from Paris to Chartres . There he died in poverty in 1721.
plant
Challe was the author of "gallant literature" as well as philosophical essays on religious subjects. His essay Difficultés sur la religion proposées au Père Malebranche (1768) influenced deism and natural religion (“religion naturelle”) of the 18th century. He is therefore counted among the French early scouts.
He wrote a lot under a pseudonym , including the successful work Les Illustres Francaises , which appeared in The Hague in 1713 . It contains seven amorous stories and has been translated several times (German: The Illustrious French Women ). The first part of his memoirs appeared in 1716 - other parts were lost.
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Journal d'un voyage fait aux Indes Orientales par une escadre de six vaisseaux commandez par M. Du Quesne, depuis le 24 février 1690, jusqu'au 20 août 1691 (3 volumes, 1721).
- Robert Challe: Adventure on behalf of the Sun King . Edited by Maria Fuhrmann-Plemp van Duiveland, Erdmann-Verlag, Tübingen 1980
literature
- List of Robert Challe's works (scan from the Munich Digitization Center)
- Journal d'un voyage fait aux Indes Orientales , Volume 2, books.google.de
- Les illustres Françoises. Historically véritable . Volume 1, books.google.fr
- Histoires françoises, galantes et comiques , books.google.fr
- Le militaire philosophe , books.google.fr
- Frédéric Deloffre: Article by about Robert Challe (French), books.google.de
- Lawrence J. Forno: Robert Challe (English) books.google.de
- French Literature in the Age of Enlightenment, books.google.de
- Knapp-Tepperberg, Eva-Maria: Robert Challe's "Illustres Francoises". Narrated reality in the French Early Enlightenment . In: Studia Romanica , 19th issue. Heidelberg 1970
Web links
- Literature by and about Robert Challe in the catalog of the German National Library
- Société des amis de Robert Challe (French)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Challe, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French traveler and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th August 1659 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 25, 1721 |
| Place of death | Chartres |