author
Jean de La Bruyère
1645–1696
Best known for a single brilliant book, he turned close observation into sharp, memorable portraits of human behavior. His writing is witty, skeptical, and still surprisingly modern in the way it notices vanity, ambition, and self-deception.
2 Audiobooks
Les caractères
by Jean de La Bruyère
The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère
by Jean de La Bruyère
About the author
Born in Paris in August 1645, Jean de La Bruyère became one of the great French moralists of the seventeenth century. He studied law, bought a treasury post early in life, and later entered the household of the powerful Condé family, where he served as tutor to the duke's grandson and moved close to court society.
That vantage point fed the book that made his name: Les Caractères, first published in 1688. Beginning with a translation of Theophrastus, La Bruyère expanded the project into a series of vivid character sketches and reflections on the manners of his own age. The result is a lively mix of satire, social observation, and moral reflection that helped secure his place in French literature.
He was elected to the Académie française in 1693 and died at Versailles in May 1696. Although he is chiefly remembered for one work, its sharp eye for hypocrisy, status, and everyday folly has kept it readable for centuries.