Jacques Cazotte

Jacques Cazotte was a French writer born in Dijon in 1719. He was educated by Jesuits, moved to Paris, and began publishing light, imaginative works before serving for years in the French marine administration, including time in Martinique.

After returning to France, he devoted himself more fully to literature. His most famous work, The Devil in Love (Le Diable amoureux, 1772), became especially influential for its mix of wit, romance, and the uncanny, and it is often remembered as an early landmark in fantastic fiction.

Cazotte lived through the upheavals of the French Revolution and was executed in Paris in 1792. His life and writing have kept readers interested ever since, both for their historical setting and for the strange, dreamlike mood that runs through his best-known stories.