Jean-François Marmontel

Born in Bort-les-Orgues on July 11, 1723, Jean-François Marmontel became a French writer, historian, critic, and member of the Encyclopédistes movement. Encouraged by Voltaire, he settled in Paris in the 1740s and built a career in the world of letters, writing tragedies, opera librettos, tales, novels, and essays.

Marmontel was closely tied to the intellectual life of his time. He contributed to the Encyclopédie and later joined the Académie française. His work was known for its polished, accessible style, and he gained a wide readership through stories and moral tales as well as through his historical and critical writing.

Today, he is often remembered above all for Mémoires d’un père, an autobiographical work that gives a vivid picture of the literary culture of his age. He died on December 31, 1799, in Normandy, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both the ambitions and the elegance of the French Enlightenment.