Pierre de Marivaux

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, commonly referred to as Marivaux (February 4, 1688 - February 12, 1763), was a French novelist and dramatist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing numerous comedies for the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne of Paris. His most important works are Le Triomphe de l'amour, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard and Les Fausses Confidences. He also publishe... more

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, commonly referred to as Marivaux (February 4, 1688 - February 12, 1763), was a French novelist and dramatist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing numerous comedies for the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne of Paris. His most important works are Le Triomphe de l'amour, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard and Les Fausses Confidences. He also published a number of essays and two important but unfinished novels, La Vie de Marianne and Le Paysan parvenu. His father was a Norman financier whose real name was Carlet, but who assumed the surname of Chamblain, and then that of Marivaux. He brought up his family in Limoges and Riom, in the province of Auvergne, where he directed the mint. Marivaux is said to have written his first play, the Père prudent et equitable, when he was only eighteen, but it was not published till 1712, when he was twenty-four. However, the young Marivaux concentrated... less