author
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
1737–1814
Best known for the tender classic Paul et Virginie, he brought together storytelling, travel, and a deep love of the natural world. His writing helped carry Rousseau’s feeling for nature into a new literary generation.
6 Audiobooks
Paul and Virginia
by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Paul and Virginia from the French of J.B.H. de Saint Pierre
by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Paul ja Virginia
by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
L'Arcadie; suivie de La pierre d'Abraham
by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Voyage à l'Ile-de-France (1/2)
by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Voyage à l'Ile-de-France (2/2)
by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
About the author
Born in Le Havre in 1737, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre trained as an engineer and served in the army before turning to writing. Time spent on Mauritius gave him material for his early travel writing, and his friendship with Jean-Jacques Rousseau shaped his interest in nature, feeling, and moral reflection.
He is remembered above all for Paul et Virginie (1788), the immensely popular novel that made his name across Europe. He also wrote Études de la nature, a wide-ranging work that blended observation of the natural world with philosophy and helped build his reputation as both a man of letters and a botanist.
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre died in 1814. Today he is often read as a bridge between Enlightenment thought and the more emotional, nature-centered spirit that would flourish in Romantic literature.