author
Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon
1707–1777
Best known as Crébillon fils, this witty French novelist turned the manners of 18th-century high society into sharp, playful fiction. His books mix satire, elegance, and a skeptical eye for love, vanity, and social games.
2 Audiobooks
Le Sylphe ou, Songe de Mme de R***, écrit par elle-même à Mme de S*** by Crébillon
by Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon
The Amours of Zeokinizul, King of the Kofirans Translated from the Arabic of the famous Traveller Krinelbol
by Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon
About the author
Born in Paris on 13 February 1707, Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon was the son of the tragedian Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, which is why he is often called Crébillon fils. He was educated at the Jesuit collège Louis-le-Grand and went on to build a reputation very different from his father's, becoming known for light, ironic, and often daring prose rather than tragedy.
His best-known works include L'Écumoire, Les Égarements du cœur et de l'esprit, and Le Sopha. Readers and critics have long remembered him for fiction that offers a satirical, sometimes mischievous portrait of aristocratic life in 18th-century France, especially its flirtations, hypocrisies, and polished manners.
He died in 1777. Today he remains an important voice in French literature of the Enlightenment, valued for the way his novels capture both the charm and the emptiness of fashionable society.