Alain-René Le Sage
Alain-René Le Sage (or Lesage) was born 6 May 1668 in Sarzeau, France and died on 17 November 1747 in Boulogne. Le Sage was a prolific French satirical dramatist and the author of the classic picaresque novel Gil Blas, which was influential in makin
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Alain-René Le Sage (or Lesage) was born 6 May 1668 in Sarzeau, France and died on 17 November 1747 in Boulogne. Le Sage was a prolific French satirical dramatist and the author of the classic picaresque novel Gil Blas, which was influential in making the picaresque form a European literary fashion.
Although he was orphaned at age 14 and was always quite poor, Le Sage was well educated at a Jesuit college in Brittany and studied law in Paris. He was well liked in the literary salons but chose a family life over a worldly one, marrying Marie-Elisabeth Huyard in 1694. He abandoned his legal clerkship to dedicate himself to literature and received a pension from the Abbot of Lyonne, who also taught him Spanish and interested him in the Spanish theatre.
Le Sage’s early plays were adaptations of Spanish models and included the highly successful adapted comedy Crispin, rival de son maître (Crispin, Rival of His Master), performed in 1707 by the Théâtre Français. His prose work Le Diable boiteux (1707; The Devil upon Two Sticks) is of Spanish inspiration, but its satire is aimed at Parisian society. The more popular Théâtre de la Foire gave Le Sage greater freedom as an author, and he composed for that company more than 100 comédies-vaudevilles, for which he is considered successor to Molière.
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