Jacques Cazotte

Born in Dijon on October 17, 1719, Jacques Cazotte was a French writer and government official. He worked in the French administration and wrote poems, songs, and prose, but he is remembered above all for Le Diable amoureux (The Devil in Love), a short novel often described as an early classic of the fantastic.

Cazotte's writing stands out for the way it blends light, graceful storytelling with dreamlike and unsettling ideas. That mix gave his fiction a lasting place in literary history, especially for readers interested in the roots of Gothic and supernatural literature.

His final years were overshadowed by the French Revolution. Arrested during the Terror, he was executed in Paris on September 25, 1792. The dramatic end of his life has often been mentioned alongside the eerie, prophetic reputation of his work.