Louise Levesque, née Cavelier, (23 November 1703, Rouen – 18 May 1745, Paris) was an 18th-century French
femme de lettres.
The daughter of a prosecutor at the
parlement de Normandie
The Parliament of Normandy (''parlement de Normandy, Normandie''), also known as the Parliament of Rouen (''parlement de Rouen'') after the place where it sat (the provincial capital of Normandy), was a provincial parlement of the Kingdom of Fra ...
, Louise Cavelier received a good education. At age 20, she married Levesque, a gendarme of the King whom she followed to Paris. Introduced to distinguished writers, these men of letters, of which she made her favorite company and who appreciated the scope of her mind, induced her to write. She therefore devoted her leisure reading and soon indulged herself to poetry. She tried her hand to most varied genres.
Works
*1731: ''Lettres et chansons de Céphise et d’Uranie'', Paris, in-8° ;
*1733: ''Célénie'', histoire allégorique, Paris, 4 part. in-12 ;
*1736: ''Le Minet'', pièce comique et facétieuse, Paris, in-12 ;
*1736: ''Lélia, ou Histoire de Carthage'', Amsterdam, in-12 ;
*1736: ''Judith'', five-act opera, Paris, non performed because no composer accepted to write the music.
* ''Remarques critiques sur l’histoire de Don Quichotte'' ;
* ''L’Augustin'', pièce grave et plusieurs pièces de vers dans les ''Amusements du cœur et de l’esprit'' ;
*1736–1741: ''Le Siècle, ou les mémoires du Comte de Solinville'', moral novel, La Haye, in-12 ;
*1738: ''Sancho Pança, gouverneur'', poème burlesque, Amsterdam, in-8° ;
*1740: ''L’Auteur fortuné'', comedy, Paris ;
*1744: ''Le Prince des Aigues-Marines. Le Prince Invisible'', contes, Paris, in-12 ;
Sources
* Gabriel Lhéry, « Notice sur Louise Cavelier Levesque », ''Poètes normands'', Éd.
Louis-Henri Baratte, Paris, Amédée Bedelet, Martinon, Dutertre et Pilout, 1846.
*
Pierre Larousse
Pierre Athanase Larousse (23 October 18173 January 1875) was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15-volume '' Grand di ...
, ''Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe'', vol. 10, Paris, Administration du grand Dictionnaire universel, (p. 445).
* Lévesque (Louise Cavelier, dame), in ''Biographie Universelle, Ancienne et Moderne... '', vol. 24, Paris, 1819; copied in
Théodore-Éloi Lebreton'
''Biographie Normande'' vol. 12, Rouen, 1858, and ''Biographie Rouennaise'', Rouen, 1865.
External links
Louise Levesqueon
data.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levesque, Louise
18th-century French dramatists and playwrights
18th-century French poets
18th-century French women writers
French women poets
Writers from Rouen
French women dramatists and playwrights
French opera librettists
Collectors of fairy tales
1703 births
1745 deaths