author
abbé de Choisy
1644–1724
A lively voice from the age of Louis XIV, this French abbé wrote memoirs, histories, and travel accounts that still feel vivid centuries later. His life was unusual even by court standards, which helps give his writing its sharp, personal edge.
1 Audiobook
Aventures de l'abbé de Choisy habillé en femme
by abbé de Choisy
About the author
Born in Paris on August 16, 1644, François-Timoléon de Choisy became known as the abbé de Choisy: a churchman, writer, and later a member of the Académie française. He wrote across several genres, including memoir, religious history, and travel writing, and he died in Paris on October 2, 1724.
Choisy is remembered in part for the strikingly personal character of his memoirs. Accounts of his life describe a figure closely connected to the social world of seventeenth-century France, and his autobiographical writings helped preserve that world in a voice that can seem witty, observant, and surprisingly modern.
He also took part in the literary life of his time through the Académie française, where he was elected in 1687. Alongside his historical and devotional works, his travel writing on Siam and his memoirs linked him to both the political and cultural currents of Louis XIV's France.