author
Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
1688–1763
Best known for elegant, sharp comedies about love and misunderstanding, this 18th-century French writer gave his name to “marivaudage,” a style of witty, emotionally revealing dialogue. His plays still feel lively because they turn conversation itself into drama.
1 Audiobook
A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux
by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
About the author
Born in Paris on February 4, 1688, Marivaux became one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century. He is especially associated with comedy, writing for both the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne, and he also worked as a novelist and journalist.
His writing is admired for its delicacy, psychological insight, and close attention to the small shifts of feeling that happen when people fall in love, hide their intentions, or test one another. That distinctive manner became so well known that French criticism coined the term marivaudage for his refined, playful, and revealing use of language.
Marivaux was elected to the Académie française in 1742 and died in Paris on February 12, 1763. Today he remains one of the classic voices of French literature, remembered for plays that are graceful on the surface and surprisingly acute about the heart underneath.