Jean-Marie-Jérôme Fleuriot de Langle
Jean-Marie-Jérôme Fleuriot, marquis de Langle (13 December 1749 – 12 October 1807) was a French military figure and writer.
Contents
Biography
Fleuriot de Langle was born in Dinan into a younger branch of a Breton noble family. He became a page to the Dauphine in 1767, then a Black Musketeer. A scandal of which nothing is known earned him two years of exile in a provincial town. He then joined the ship Le Solitaire, commanded by one of his relatives, and participated in the American War. On his return, having failed to stay in the army, he turned to a literary career where he tried his hand at several genres such as the novel by letters, the collection of anecdotes or the travelogue.
During the Revolution, he was imprisoned for six months in the prison of La Force, then served as a secret agent for the minister Molleville.
His unpleasant physique, his causticity, his disordered life and his taste to make others speak of him, remind us sometimes of Mirabeau.
Works
- Voyage de Figaro en Espagne (1784)[1]
- Amours ou Lettres d'Alexis et Justine (1786; novel)
- Nouveau Werther, imité de l'Allemand (1786; novel, inspired by Goethe)
- Tableau pittoresque de la Suisse (1790)
- Paris littéraire (1798; reprinted as L'Alchimiste littéraire, ou décomposition des grands hommes du jour)
- Mon voyage en Prusse, ou Mémoires secrets sur Frédéric-le-Grand et la Cour de Berlin (1807)
Notes
- ↑ Although he had never set foot in Spain, Fleuriot drew a pungent picture of Spain and the Spanish people, criticizing their government, their religion and their morals. The story caused such a scandal that King Charles III complained to the French government and threatened to ban all Frenchmen from entering his kingdom. The work was then condemned to be burned by a decision of the Parliament of Paris on February 26, 1786, after a long and virulent indictment by the general lawyer Séguier. This spectacular condemnation earned the author the enthusiasm of the public: the work went through six editions, and was translated into English, German, Danish and Italian.
