author
Henri Masers de Latude
1725–1805
Best remembered for surviving years in the Bastille and turning that ordeal into a gripping memoir, this French writer became a vivid symbol of imprisonment under the old regime. His life story mixes scandal, escape, endurance, and the strange twists of 18th-century fame.
1 Audiobook
Mémoires authentiques de Latude, écrites par lui au donjon de Vincennes et à Charenton
by Henri Masers de Latude
About the author
Born on March 23, 1725, near Montagnac in France, Jean Henri Latude was often known as Danry or Masers de Latude. He received a military education and later went to Paris, where a reckless scheme involving Madame de Pompadour led to his arrest in 1748.
Latude became famous for his long confinement in the Bastille and at Vincennes, as well as for a series of daring escapes. Those experiences made him a well-known figure before and during the French Revolution, when stories of arbitrary imprisonment carried special force.
He is chiefly remembered as a writer because he turned his imprisonment into memoirs, especially Le Despotisme dévoilé, written with the help of the lawyer Thiery. He died in Paris on January 1, 1805, leaving behind the story of a life shaped by punishment, persistence, and public curiosity.