author
Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche
1715–1782
An 18th-century French man of letters and lawyer, he is best remembered for works that circulated on the libertine edge of Enlightenment-era literature. His name is especially linked to scandalous fiction whose authorship was long attributed rather than always firmly signed.
1 Audiobook
Le portier des Chartreux, ou mémoires de Saturnin écrits par lui-même
by Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche
About the author
Born in Amiens on November 26, 1715, and dying on November 28, 1782, this French writer also worked as a lawyer at the Parlement of Paris under the Ancien Régime.
He is chiefly known today through works attributed to him, including Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Bonneval (1738) and Histoire de Dom Bougre, portier des Chartreux (1741). Those books gave him a lasting place in the history of 18th-century libertine literature.
Because some of these texts were published anonymously or circulated with uncertain attribution, details about his literary career are a little hazy. Even so, bibliographic and reference sources consistently place him among the notable French authors associated with erotic and satirical fiction of his time.