Historiettes
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Historiettes is a collection of short biographies by French chronicler Gédéon Tallemant, Sieur Des Réaux.
In the Historiettes Réaux gives finished portraits of Vincent Voiture, Jean Louis Guez de Balzac, Malherbe, Jean Chapelain, Valentin Conrart and many others; Blaise Pascal and Jean de la Fontaine appear in his work; and he chronicles the scandals of which Ninon de l'Enclos and Angélique Paulet were centres.
The Historiettes are invaluable for the literary history of the time. It has been said that the malicious intention of Tallemant's work may be partly attributed to his bourgeois extraction and that the slights he received are avenged in his pages, but independent testimony has established the substantial correctness of his statements.
The work remained in manuscript until it was edited in 1834-6 by MM. de Châteaugiron, Jules Taschereau and LJN de Monmerqué, with a notice on Tallemant by Monmerqué. A third edition (6 vols. 1872) contains a notice by Paulin Paris.