author
Pigault-Lebrun
1753–1835
A lively, irreverent voice in French literature, this novelist and playwright became known for fast-moving stories, comic energy, and a taste for scandal. His work helped shape a popular strain of fiction that prized wit, mischief, and momentum over moral solemnity.
1 Audiobook
L'amour et la raison
by Pigault-Lebrun
About the author
Born in Calais on April 8, 1753, Charles-Antoine-Guillaume Pigault de l'Épinoy wrote under the name Pigault-Lebrun. He became known as a French novelist and playwright, and his reputation was tied to a bold, humorous style that stood out for its energy and lack of pious restraint.
Accounts of his early life describe it as turbulent, and that unruly streak seems to echo in the fiction he became famous for. He wrote numerous plays as well as novels, with L'Enfant du carnaval often singled out among his best-known works.
Pigault-Lebrun died on July 24, 1835, at La Celle-Saint-Cloud. Though not always treated as a model of literary respectability, he holds a real place in literary history as a popular storyteller whose lively, often provocative books influenced later entertainment-driven fiction.