Jean Desmarets, Sieur de Saint-Sorlin (1595 – 28 October 1676) was a French writer and dramatist. He was a founding member, and the first to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in 1634.

Biography

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

, Desmarets was introduced to Cardinal Richelieu, and became one of the band of writers who carried out the cardinal's literary ideas when he was about thirty years old. His inclination, however, was to writing novels, and the success of his romance ''L'Ariane'' in 1632 led to his formal admission to a circle of writers that met at the house of Valentin Conrart. When this circle later developed into the Académie française, Desmarets became its first chancellor. He was related to Marie Dupré. His success led to official preferment, and he was made ''conseiller du roi'', ''contrôleur-général de l'extraordinaire des guerres'', and secretary-general of the fleet of the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

Works

It was at Richelieu's request that he began to write for the theatre. In this genre he produced a comedy long regarded as a masterpiece, ''Les Visionnaires'' (1637), where, slightly disguised, real personages such as Madeleine de Sablé, la marquise de Rambouillet et Madame de Chavigny are staged; a prose-tragedy, ''Erigone'' (1638); and ''Scipion'' (1639), a tragedy in verse. His long epic ''Clovis'' (1657) is noteworthy because Desmarets rejected the traditional pagan background, and maintained that Christian imagery should supplant it. With this standpoint he contributed several works in defence of the moderns in the famous quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns. In his later years Desmarets devoted himself chiefly to producing a number of religious poems, of which the best known is perhaps his verse translation of the ''Office de la Vierge'' (1645). He was an outspoken opponent of the

Jansenists Jansenism was an Early modern period, early modern Christian theology, theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human Total depravity, depravity, the necessity of divine g ...

, against whom he wrote a ''Réponse à l'insolente apologie de Port-Royal'' (1666). He died in Paris on 28 October 1676.

References

* Jean-Claude Vuillemin, "Jean Desmarets de Saint Sorlin,", in L. Foisneau, ed., '' Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century French Philosophers'', 2 vols. London and New York: Thoemmes Continuum, 2008. I. pp. 355–59. * * H. Rigault (1856). ''Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes'', pp. 80–103. *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Desmarets, Jean 1595 births 1676 deaths Writers from Paris 17th-century French poets 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French novelists 17th-century French dramatists and playwrights Members of the Académie Française

Biography

Works

See also

References

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