Jacques Cazotte

Born in Dijon on October 17, 1719, Jacques Cazotte was a French writer and civil servant educated by the Jesuits. He spent part of his career in Martinique as a colonial administrator before returning to Paris, where he turned more fully to literature.

He wrote playful and imaginative tales, but he is remembered above all for Le Diable amoureux (The Devil in Love), published in 1772. That short novel, with its mix of wit, temptation, and the supernatural, became one of the landmark works of early fantastic fiction and influenced later writers drawn to dreamlike or uncanny storytelling.

Cazotte remained a royalist during the French Revolution. He was arrested in 1792 and executed in Paris on September 25 of that year. Alongside his books, he became part of literary legend through stories that cast him as a prophetic and mysterious figure.