Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Literary Sights
Maison de Victor Hugo (Le Marais, Ménilmontant & Belleville)
Maison de Balzac (Eiffel Tower & Western Paris)
Musée de la Vie Romantique (Montmartre & Northern Paris)
Musée Carnavalet (Le Marais, Ménilmontant & Belleville)
Art Ludique-Le Musée (Montparnasse & Southern Paris)
Classical
During the 17th century, François de Malherbe, court poet under Henri IV, brought a new
rigour to rhythm in literature. One of his better-known works is his sycophantic
Ode
(1600)
to Marie de Médici. Transported by the perfection of Malherbe's verses, Jean de la Fontaine
went on to write his charming
Fables
(1668) in the manner of Aesop - though he fell afoul
of the Académie Française (French Academy) in the process. A mood of classical tragedy
permeates
La Princesse de Clèves
(1678), by Marie de la Fayette, widely regarded as the
precursor of the modern character novel.
18th Century
The literature of the 18th century is dominated by philosophers, among them Voltaire
(François-Marie Arouet) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Voltaire's political writings, arguing
that society is fundamentally opposed to nature, had a profound and lasting influence on the
century, and he is buried in the Panthéon. Rousseau's sensitivity to landscape and its moods
anticipated romanticism, and the insistence on his own singularity in
Les Confessions
(1782)
made it the first modern autobiography. He, too, lies in the Panthéon.
