Antoine Bret (9 July 1717,
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
– 25 February 1792, Paris aged 74) was an 18th-century French writer and playwright.
A prolific writer, he practiced almost all genres. He composed light poetry, comedies, novels, memoirs, parodic and licentious tales. A fairly pure style, ease of invention, reviews more ingenious than deep made him a reputation without rising above the fair. A good connoisseur of drama, he wrote plays sinning nevertheless by lack verve and comic force.
We owe him an edition of the ''Oeuvres'' by
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...
, whose comments were appreciated. ''La Belle Alsacienne, ou Telle mère telle fille'', a
libertine novel
The libertine novel was an 18th-century literary genre of which the roots lay in the European but mainly French libertine tradition. The genre effectively ended with the French Revolution. Themes of libertine novels were anti-clericalism, anti-e ...
first published in 1745 under the title ''La Belle Allemande, ou les Galanteries de Thérèse'', which tells the story of a girl walking in the footsteps of her mother and letting her drive by in the ways of gallantry, was assigned to him as well as to
Claude Villaret.
Antoine Bret was a member of the
Académie de Stanislas in Nancy and
Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon
The Académie de Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population ...
. During several years, he contributed the ''
Gazette de France'' and ''
Journal encyclopédique'' and was also royal censor for operas.
Publications
*1743: ''Cythéride, histoire galante traduite du grec''
*1745: ''La Belle Allemande, ou les Galanteries de Thérèse'', also known under the title ''La Belle Alsacienne, ou Telle mère telle fille'' and also attributed to
Claude Villaret,
Text online
/small>
*1746: ''Lycoris, ou la Courtisane grecque''
*1749: ''Le *****, histoire bavarde'', Text online
/small>
*1751: ''Memoires sur la vie de mademoiselle de Lenclos'', Text online
/small>
*1765: ''Essai de contes moraux et dramatiques''
*1770: ''Essai d'une Poétique à la mode''.
;Theatre
*1744: ''Le Déguisement pastoral'', one-act opéra comique, Paris, Théâtre de la foire Saint-Laurent, 27 July
*1744: ''Le Quartier d'hiver'', comedy in 1 act and in verse, with Claude Villaret and Claude Godard d'Aucour, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 4 December
*1747: ''L'École amoureuse'', one-act comedy, in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 11 September
*1747: ''Le Concert'', comedy in 1 act and in prose, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 16 November
*1750: ''La Double Extravagance'', comedy in 3 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 27 July
*1753: ''Le Parnasse moderne'', one-act opéra comique, Paris, Théâtre de la foire Saint-Germain, 3 February
*1753: ''Le Calendrier des vieillards'', one-act opéra comique, Paris, Théâtre de la foire Saint-Germain, 7 April
*1755: ''Le Jaloux'', comedy in 3 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 15 May
*1758: ''L'Orpheline, ou le Faux généreux'', comedy in 3 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 18 January
*1763: ''Le Protecteur bourgeois, ou la Confiance trahie'', comedy in five acts and in verse, 13 October, Text online
/small>
*1764: ''L'Épreuve indiscrète'', two-act comedy in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 30 January
*1765: ''Le Mariage par dépit'', three-act comedy in prose, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 13 June
*1778: ''Les Deux Julies, ou le Père crédule'', three-act comédie-farce in free verse, imitated from the ''Bacchides'' by Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the ...
*1785: ''L'Hôtellerie, ou le Faux Ami'', drama in 5 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre de l'Odéon, 30 September
*undated: ''La Maison'', comedy in two acts and in verse
*undated: ''L'Humeur à l'épreuve'', comedy in one act and in prose
*undated: ''Les Lettres anonymes'', comedy in four acts and in verse.
;Collected works
*1772: ''Œuvres de M. Bret'', Text online : 1. Fables orientales et poésies diverses2. Le Protecteur bourgeois3. Réflexions sur la littérature
/small>
*1789: ''Œuvres de M. Bret'', 2 vol., Text online : 1. L'École amoureuse. La Double Extravagance. Le Jaloux. L'Humeur à l'épreuve. Le Faux Généreux2. La Maison. Le Protecteur bourgeois. Les Lettres anonymes. Les Deux Julies
/small>
;Édition de Molière
*1778: ''Œuvres complètes de Molière, avec des remarques grammaticales, des avertissements et des observations sur chaque pièce'', 6 vol., 1773 ; 8 vol.
Sources
* Gustave Vapereau
Louis Gustave Vapereau (4 April 1819 – 18 April 1906) was a French writer and lexicographer famous primarily for his dictionaries, the ''Dictionnaire universel des contemporains'' and the ''Dictionnaire universel des littérateurs''.
Biography
...
, ''Dictionnaire universel des littératures'', Paris, Hachette, 1876, (p. 324)
* Ferdinand Hoefer
Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer (German: ''Ferdinand Höfer'', 21 April 1811, Döschnitz – 4 May 1878) was a German-French physician and lexicographer. He is now known for his many works on the history of science.
Selected works
*''Élément ...
, ''Nouvelle Biographie générale'', t. 7, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1853, (p. 338)
External links
Antoine Bret
o
CÉSAR
Antoine Bret
on Data.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bret, Antoine
18th-century French writers
18th-century French male writers
18th-century French dramatists and playwrights
1717 births
Writers from Dijon
1792 deaths