author
M. de Moncrif
1687–1770
A lively figure of 18th-century Paris, this French writer and poet moved easily through court and literary circles. He is still remembered above all for a witty, playful book about cats that made him famous—and sometimes easy to mock.
1 Audiobook
Essais sur la necessité et les moyens de plaire
by M. de Moncrif
About the author
Born in Paris in 1687, François-Augustin de Paradis de Moncrif was a French writer and poet. He became a familiar presence in fashionable literary society and was later appointed royal historiographer to Louis XV.
Moncrif wrote plays, librettos, poems, and light satirical works. His best-known book is Histoire des chats (The History of Cats), a humorous work whose success helped make his name widely known.
He was elected to the Académie française and was known in his own time as a polished man of letters as well as an entertaining social figure. He died in Paris on November 19, 1770.