Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (1644,

Montargis Montargis () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry and farming, ...

– 8 May 1712,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

) was a French novelist, journalist, pamphleteer and memorialist. His abundant output includes short stories, gallant letters, tales of historical love affairs (''Les Intrigues amoureuses de la Cour de France'', 1684), historical and political works, biographies and semi-fictional "memoirs" (in the first person; his prefaces often indicate that the works were composed from papers found after the subject's death) of historical figures from the recent past (such as the Marquis de Montbrun and M. de Rochefort). His memoir-novels (''Mémoires de M.L.C.D.R.'', 1687; ''Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan'', 1700; ''Mémoires de M. de B.''; 1711) describe the social and political world of Richelieu and Mazarin with a picaresque realism (spies, kidnappings, and political machinations predominate) and they were important precursors to both French

picaresque novel The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...

s and literary realism in the 18th century. Courtilz de Sandras is best known today for his semi-fictionalized memoirs of the famous

musketeer A musketeer (french: mousquetaire) was a type of soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern warfare particularly in Europe as they normally comprised the majority of their infantry. The musketeer was a pr ...

d'Artagnan Charles de Batz de Castelmore (), also known as d'Artagnan and later Count d'Artagnan ( 1611 – 25 June 1673), was a French Musketeer who served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard. He died at the siege of Maastricht in the ...

which were published in 1700 (27 years after the death of d'Artagnan) and which served as the model for

Alexandre Dumas, père Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer. ...

's portrayal of d'Artagnan in ''

The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' (french: Les Trois Mousquetaires, links=no, ) is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight f ...

'' (Fr: ''Les trois mousquetaires''), ''

Twenty Years After ''Twenty Years After'' (french: Vingt ans après) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized from January to August 1845. A book of ''The d'Artagnan Romances'', it is a sequel to ''The Three Musketeers'' (1844) and precedes the 1847–1850 no ...

'' (Fr: ''Vingt ans après'') and '' The Vicomte de Bragelonne'' (Fr: ''Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard''). Courtilz de Sandras served in the army before becoming a writer. He was imprisoned several times in the

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stor ...

where Besmaux, the former companion of d’Artagnan, was warden and it was most likely from this source that he learned the details of d'Artagnan's life.

References

*''Portions of this article are based on the equivalent article from the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has articl ...

, consulted in February 2006.'' * Dandrey, Patrick, ed. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises - Le XVIIe siècle.'' Paris: Fayard, 1996, pp. 344–346.

External links

* * 1644 births 1712 deaths People from Montargis 18th-century French journalists French memoirists 17th-century French male writers 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers 17th-century French novelists 18th-century French novelists French male novelists French male non-fiction writers 18th-century memoirists {{France-novelist-stub