Memoirs of Marmontel, Written by Himself: Including Anecdotes of the Most Distinguished Literary and Political Characters Who Appeared in France during the Last Century, in Two Volumes (Historic Memoir Series Number 2) [Jean-Francois Marmontel]

xxiv, 384; xvi, 352 pp. 8vo. Engraved frontispieces of Marmontel and Voltaire. A memoir by the French historian and writer who was also member of the Encyclopedistes movement, notable for developing the Encyclopedie edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Marmontel contributed a series of articles thereto, served as a patron to Madame de Pompadour, and was named historiographer of France (1771), secretary to the Academy (1783), and professor of history in the Lycee (1786). First published in 1804 in four volumes, his memoirs remain of great importance to literary historians. They include a picturesque review of his life, a literary history of two important reigns, a great gallery of portraits extending from the venerable Jean Baptiste Massillon to Honore Mirabeau. The book was nominally written for the instruction of his children. It contains an exquisite picture of his own childhood in the Limousin; its value for the literary historian is great. Both John Ruskin and John Stuart Mill list Marmontel among their influences.