author
Restif de La Bretonne
1734–1806
A printer turned wildly prolific writer, he transformed the bustle, hardship, and scandal of 18th-century France into novels, memoirs, and social visions that still feel startlingly close to everyday life. Best known for vivid, intensely personal books, he wrote with the eye of both a street observer and a restless reformer.
2 Audiobooks
L'Anti-Justine; ou, Les Delices de l'amour
by Restif de La Bretonne
Contes de Restif de la Bretonne Le Pied de Fanchette, ou, le Soulier couleur de rose
by Restif de La Bretonne
About the author
Born in Sacy in 1734, Restif de La Bretonne was the son of a farmer and later trained as a printer. That background mattered: he knew both rural life and the world of Paris workshops, and he drew on both in his writing.
He became an extraordinarily productive French author, publishing novels, memoirs, and works of social commentary. Among his best-known books are La Vie de mon père, which looks back at peasant life, Les Nuits de Paris, a vivid record of urban streets and underworld scenes, and Monsieur Nicolas, the sprawling autobiography for which he is especially remembered.
Readers often come to him for the sheer detail of his work. His books blend confession, observation, imagination, and reforming ideas, which can make the line between fact and invention hard to pin down, but also gives them unusual energy. He died in Paris in 1806, after a life marked by financial struggle as well as relentless literary ambition.