Louis de Rouvroy, better known as Saint-Simon is a French memoirist whose Mémoires (1691-1723) constitute both historical and human testimony to the end of the reign of Louis XIV and to the Regency. It was already compared during his lifetime to the most interesting and the most pleasant of dictiona
Short biography - Great figure of the Age of Enlightenment, Montesquieu (1689-1755) is a French writer and philosopher, author of two major works which ensured his posterity:one literary, Les lettres Persanes , the other policy, The spirit of the Laws . The first marks the beginnings of Enlightenm
Short biography - Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) is a French poet, pioneer of modern poetry. He is the inventor of the calligram (it is he who invents the name), a drawn poem. Guillaume Apollinaire lives at a pivotal time in French poetry. He knows the end of Symbolism and dies before the Dadaist
The Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was a writer and humanist of the Enlightenment, great lover of freedom, without taboos and without the involvement of God. His work, which is both the theory and the illustration of what will be called sadism, forms the pathological double of the philosophers and na
Short biography - Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) was a 17th century French writer. He wrote the very famous Fables, inherited from oral tradition and from the Greek fabulist Aesop. He shows a great mastery of the French language and verse. He was also the author of Tales, Poems, Comedies, Epistle
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) , prolific French writer despite his short existence left us six novels and nearly three hundred short stories , in a style that mixes realism and fantasy. Published from 1880 to 1891, these works realistically describe social and rural environments. Natural deeply dis
Short biography - Jean Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière , is a 17th century French author and actor whose name alone evokes the greatest hours of French theatre. First influenced by Italian comedies, Molière affirms an original style in a succession of comedies which ironically address the mores
Short biography - Although he was an influential politician, François René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) is best known as a talented writer and precursor of theRomantic movement. . Coming from an aristocratic class abused by the French Revolution, conservative, pious, he despises the materialistic ra
Michel Eyquen de Montaigne (1533-1592) is a French writer famous for his essays, his only work. A great Humanist, he was inclined towards tolerance between beings and respect for difference, by laying down the first principles where the Society should be made to serve Man and not the other way aroun
Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814) , who called himself the greatest bookseller in France can be considered the great reporter of the 18th century. Poet, journalist, writer, he lived under several political regimes ranging from the monarchy to the Empire, passing through the Constituent Assembly, t
Short biography:Émile Zola (1840-1902) was a 19th century French novelist and precursor of naturalism in literature. Zolas most famous novels are the Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893), a twenty-volume saga that depicts the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire. A committed writer
Short biography - Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) remains in the pantheon of French poets of the 19th century, as one of the most remarkable both for his work imbued with musicality, and for his destiny marked with the seal of passion and tragedy. His existence will be lastingly marked by his meeting with
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) is one of the great names in 19th century French poetry. His best-known work, The Flowers of Evil , will be worth many legal setbacks to him. The poet and his publisher are condemned for immorality, the themes addressed being considered scandalous. Convinced that socie
Jean Racine (1639-1699) was a French playwright of the 17th century, and was one of the most significant authors of the century of Louis XIV, along with Pierre Corneille and Molière. . After trying to reconcile his literary aspirations with an ecclesiastical career, he devoted himself entirely to th
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) is one of the greatest French novelists of the 19th century and the author of the Human Comedy, a vast study of manners. Man of excess, ladies man, proud and certain of his talent, Balzac paints between romanticism and realism the upset society of his time, marked by th
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is a writer, philosopher and musician from Geneva and one of the great figures of the Enlightenment . His main works, Discourse on the sciences and the arts , Discourse on Inequality among Men , the New Héloïse , the Social Contract and Emile will be a resounding
François Rabelais (circa 1483-1553) is a French writer among the first French humanists. He is notably the author of Pantagruel and Gargantua which will ensure his celebrity. His personality remains obscure and is the subject of many hypotheses. He appears sometimes drunk and pleasure-loving, someti
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) is a French poet with a precocious genius who largely contributed to revolutionizing poetry, before abandoning it abruptly at the dawn of his twenties. Rimbaud will have marked literature as much by his life, which took hold of the myth, as by his unprecedented work, the f
Short biography:François Marie Harouet (1694-1778), says Voltaire , is a French writer author of tragedies, philosophical tales (Zadig, Candide ...) and historical works. A time spy, he was the greatest journalist of his time, his abundant correspondence reflecting a century of events and thoughts
Beaumarchais (1732-1799), real name Pierre Augustin Caron , is a French writer and playwright, known for his theatrical works such as the Barber of Seville and the Wedding of Figaro . First clockmaker to the king, he married a wealthy court widow and taught the harp to the daughters of Louis XV. Kni
The figure in a drawing by Kamil Jadczak. Figure The wife of Mieszko II Lambert and the first Polish queen, crowned with her husband and father-in-law, Bolesław the Brave, in the spring of 1025. She was a descendant of the imperial Ludolfing family after her mother, and a Lorraine magnate af
Poetess from Pate Island (Kenya), Mwana Kupona binti Msham (circa 1810 -1865) wrote the long poem Utendi wa Mwana Kupona (“The Book of Mwana Kupona”), which marks the birth of Swahili literature. A little-known life What little we know of Mwana Kuponas life comes from his work and from the tes
Vallabhbhai had to work day and night to send Vithalbhai to England from the accumulated capital till now and to run the expenses of two families. Sardar Patels wife Jhaberba took care of his every need but she fell ill. He probably had a cancerous lump in his stomach. Vallabhbhai could not pay mu
A semi-legendary Chinese inventor, Huang Daopo (1240 or 1245 – 1330) is famous for developing, spreading and inventing weaving and spinning techniques, laying the foundations of the Chinese textile industry. Child-wife Little is known of Huang Daopos life. She was born between 1240 and 1245 to a