Évariste Parny

author

Évariste Parny

1753–1814

A poet from Réunion who found fame in late 18th-century France, he became known for graceful love poems, elegies, and later works with a sharper satirical edge. His writing helped carry French poetry from the Rococo era toward early Romantic feeling.

1 Audiobook

Poésies érotiques

Poésies érotiques

by Évariste Parny

About the author

Born on February 6, 1753, on the Isle of Bourbon, now Réunion, he was sent to France as a child and was educated in Rennes. He later entered the army, but literature became the work that made his name.

He was especially admired for the poems gathered in Poésies érotiques and Élégies, whose intimate, musical style brought him wide recognition. He also wrote the Chansons madécasses, a striking set of prose poems often noted for their originality and influence, along with later satirical and anticlerical verse.

During his lifetime he was a celebrated writer, praised by major readers of his age and remembered as an important French poet born in the Indian Ocean world. He died in Paris on December 5, 1814.