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Alain-René Lesage

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).

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

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

  • Le Diable boiteux, 1707. (French version 16 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine) (tr. The Devil upon Two Sticks, The Devil on Two Sticks; English version)
  • Gil Blas (English version, French)
    • Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres I–VI), 1715. (French version)
    • Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres VII–IX), 1724. (French version)
    • Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, (Livres X–XII), 1735. (French version)
    • Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, 1747.
  • Les avantures de monsieur Robert Chevalier, dit de Beauchêne, capitaine de flibustiers dans la Nouvelle-France, 1732[3] (French version)
  • Le Bachelier de Salamanque, 1736. (French version)
  • Estevanille Gonzalez, 1732* Alain-René Lesage at Standard Ebooks* La Valise trouvée, 1740 (French version)
  • Mélange amusant de saillies d'esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants, 1743

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

alain, rené, lesage, this, article, includes, list, general, references, lacks, sufficient, corresponding, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, introducing, more, precise, citations, february, 2013, learn, when, remove, this, template, mess. This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations February 2013 Learn how and when to remove this template message Alain Rene Lesage French pronunciation alɛ ʁene lesaʒ 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 Alain Rene LesageBorn 1668 05 06 6 May 1668Sarzeau Brittany FranceDied17 November 1747 1747 11 17 aged 79 Boulogne sur Mer Picardy FranceOccupationNovelist playwrightNationalityFrenchPeriodEnlightenment Contents 1 Life 1 1 Youth and education 1 2 First literary efforts 1 3 Prose writings 1 4 Retirement 2 Personality 2 1 Quotations 3 Works 4 Bibliography 5 References 6 External linksLife editYouth 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 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 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 nbsp 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 Fernandez de Avellaneda and soon afterwards adapted a play from Pedro Calderon 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 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 Etrennes 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 Francois Petis 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 Theatre Francais did not welcome him and in 1715 he began to write for the Theatre 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 Beauchene 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 trouvee a collection of imaginary letters and of some minor pieces including Une journee 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 Andre had become an actor and Lesage had disowned him Lesage s last work Melange 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 Theatre Francais against which Lesage had long waged a satirical war Probably out of deference to his father the son took the name Montmenil 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 Montmenil that he could barely leave his side Montmenil 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 Abbe 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 Rene Lesage died on 17 November 1747 Personality editVery 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 Hotel 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 Hotel 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 Hotel 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 editTranslations and adaptations Le Traitre puni 1700 Don Felix 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 Don Cesar Ursin 1707 French version Les Etrennes 1707 Crispin rival de son maitre 1707 French version Turcaret 1709 Arlequin roi de Serendib 1713 La Foire de Guibray 1714 Arlequin Mahomet 1714 La Statue merveilleuse fair play with d Orneval 1720 French version La Boite de Pandore 1721 comedy in 1 act 4 Novels Le Diable boiteux 1707 French version Archived 16 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine tr The Devil upon Two Sticks The Devil on Two Sticks English version Gil Blas English version French Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane Livres I VI 1715 French version Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane Livres VII IX 1724 French version Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane Livres X XII 1735 French version Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane 1747 Les avantures de monsieur Robert Chevalier dit de Beauchene capitaine de flibustiers dans la Nouvelle France 1732 3 French version Le Bachelier de Salamanque 1736 French version Estevanille Gonzalez 1732 Alain Rene Lesage at Standard Ebooks La Valise trouvee 1740 French version Melange amusant de saillies d esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants 1743Bibliography editFrancis Assaf Lesage et le picaresque A G Nizet 1983 ISBN 2 7078 1032 0 Christelle Bahier Porte La Poetique d Alain Rene Lesage Champion 2006 ISBN 978 2 7453 1406 2 V Barberet Lesage et le theatre de la foire Paul Sordoillet 1887 Slatkine Reprints 1970 Roger Laufer Lesage ou Le metier 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 a b c d e Saintsbury 1911 p 486 Karateke Hakan T 2015 The Politics of Translation Two Stories from the Turkish Ferec baʿde Sidde 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 a b Biography CHEVALIER Beauchene ROBERT Volume II 1701 1740 Dictionary of Canadian Biography www biographi ca Retrieved 8 March 2019 Petite bibliotheque des theatres Paris 1789 vol 62 pp 67 8 Attribution nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Saintsbury George 1911 Le Sage Alain Rene In Chisholm Hugh ed Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 16 11th ed Cambridge University Press pp 486 487 That entry includes a long critical appraisal by Saintsbury nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Herbermann Charles ed 1913 Alain Rene Le Sage Catholic Encyclopedia New York Robert Appleton Company External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Alain Rene Lesage Alain Rene Lesage on data bnf fr Works by Alain Rene Lesage in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Alain Rene Lesage at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Alain Rene Lesage at Internet Archive Works by Alain Rene Lesage at LibriVox public domain audiobooks nbsp Alain Rene Le Sage Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Alain Rene Lesage amp oldid 1214478233, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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