- In full:
- Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
- Born:
- February 4, 1688, Paris, France
- Died:
- February 12, 1763, Paris (aged 75)
- Notable Works:
- “La Vie de Marianne”
Pierre Marivaux
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Who was Pierre Marivaux?
Pierre Marivaux (1688-1763) was a celebrated French dramatist, novelist, and journalist known for his comedies, which, after Molière's, became staples in French theatre. His style, characterized by acute nuance, wit, and wordplay, is known as marivaudage.
Marivaux's notable works include Arlequin poli par l’amour (1723; "Harlequin Brightened by Love") and Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard (1730; The Game of Love and Chance). His plays often featured commedia dell’arte characters like Harlequin and ingenues, with realistic portrayals of servants and precise depictions of the social milieu. Beyond theater, his novels, such as La Vie de Marianne (1731–41) and Le Paysan parvenu (1734–35), delve into human psychology and social dynamics, reflecting a rejection of authority in favor of naturalness.
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What is Pierre Marivaux best known for?
Pierre Marivaux, a French dramatist, novelist, and journalist, is best known for his comedies, which, after Molière, are the most frequently performed in French theatre. His plays, such as Arlequin poli par l’amour and Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard, display romantic settings and witty wordplay, which became known as marivaudage, reflecting the era's sensitivity and sophistication. Marivaux also made advances in realism, depicting servants with real feelings and a precise social milieu. His notable works include the satires L’Île des esclaves and L’Île de la raison, which mock European society.
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What kinds of plays did Pierre Marivaux write?
Pierre Marivaux, a French dramatist, wrote over 30 comedies, mainly between 1720 and 1740, largely focusing on the psychology of love. His plays often feature refined young women who, to their dismay, fall in love, losing their autonomy.
Marivaux's work includes comedies such as Arlequin poli par l’amour and Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard, which display romantic settings and witty wordplay. He also wrote satires like L’Île des esclaves and L’Île de la raison, which mock European society. Other plays, such as La Nouvelle colonie, address equality between the sexes, and L’École des mères studies mother-daughter relationships. Many of his plays deal with social barriers created by rank or money, such as La Double Inconstance and Les Fausses Confidences.
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What are some famous works by Marivaux?
Pierre Marivaux was a prolific French playwright, novelist, and journalist. Some of his famous works include Arlequin poli par l’amour (1723; "Harlequin Brightened by Love") and Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard (1730; The Game of Love and Chance), which are known for their romantic settings and witty wordplay.
Other notable plays include L’île des esclaves (1725; "Isle of Slaves") and La Nouvelle colonie (1729; "The New Colony"). Marivaux's human psychology is best revealed in his unfinished romance novels La Vie de Marianne (1731–41) and Le Paysan parvenu (1734–35; "The Fortunate Peasant").
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What style or themes are found in Marivaux's writing?
Pierre Marivaux was a French dramatist, novelist, and journalist. His love comedies display romantic settings with an acute sense of nuance. His writing is known for its sensitivity, sophistication, and deft wordplay, a verbal preciousness known as marivaudage.
Marivaux advanced realism by giving servants real feelings and precisely depicting the social milieu. His plays mock European society and treat equality between the sexes.
Marivaux's novels reveal human psychology, focusing on psychological analysis and the moral life of his characters. His works reflect a rejection of authority and religious orthodoxy in favor of simple morality and naturalness.
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How did Pierre Marivaux influence French theater and literature?
Pierre Marivaux, a prominent French dramatist, novelist, and journalist, significantly shaped French theater and literature. After Molière, Marivaux's comedies became staples in French theater. His plays explored the nuances of love and social dynamics, employing wit and psychological depth, a style known as marivaudage.
Marivaux's realism advanced the depiction of servants' emotions and precise social settings. His notable works include The Game of Love and Chance and Isle of Slaves. His novels, such as La Vie de Marianne, delved into psychological analysis and moral complexities, influencing the novel of sensibility and earning admiration from Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
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Pierre Marivaux (born February 4, 1688, Paris, France—died February 12, 1763, Paris) was a French dramatist, novelist, and journalist whose comedies became, after those of Molière, the most frequently performed in French theatre.
His wealthy, aristocratic family moved to Limoges, where his father practiced law, the same profession for which the young Marivaux trained. Most interested in the drama of the courts, at 20 he wrote his first play, Le Père prudent et équitable, ou Crispin l’heureux fourbe (“The Prudent and Equitable Father”). Such early writings showed promise, and by 1710 he had joined Parisian salon society, whose atmosphere and conversational manners he absorbed for his occasional journalistic writings. He contributed Réflexions…on the various social classes to the Nouveau Mercure (1717–19) and modeled his own periodical, Le Spectateur Français (1720–24), after Joseph Addison’s The Spectator.
The loss of his fortune in 1720, followed a few years later by the death of his young wife, caused Marivaux to take his literary career more seriously. He was drawn into several fashionable artistic salons and received a pension from Mme de Pompadour. He became a close associate of the philosophes Bernard de Fontenelle and Montesquieu and of the critic and playwright La Motte.
Marivaux’s first plays were written for the Comédie-Française, among them the five-act verse tragedy Annibal (1727). But the Italian Theatre of Lelio, sponsored in Paris by the regent Philippe d’Orleans, attracted him far more. The major players Thomassin and Silvia of this commedia dell’arte troupe became Marivaux’s stock lovers: Harlequin, or the valet, and the ingenue. Arlequin poli par l’amour (1723; “Harlequin Brightened by Love”) and Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard (1730; The Game of Love and Chance) display typical characteristics of his love comedies: romantic settings, an acute sense of nuance and the finer shades of feeling, and deft and witty wordplay. This verbal preciousness is still known as marivaudage and reflects the sensitivity and sophistication of the era. Marivaux also made notable advances in realism; his servants are given real feelings, and the social milieu is depicted precisely. Among his 30-odd plays are the satires L’Île des esclaves (1725; “Isle of Slaves”) and L’Île de la raison (1727; “Isle of Reason”), which mock European society after the manner of Gulliver’s Travels. La Nouvelle colonie (1729; “The New Colony”) treats equality between the sexes, while L’École des mères (1724; “School for Mothers”) studies mother-daughter rapport.
Marivaux’s human psychology is best revealed in his romance novels, both unfinished. La Vie de Marianne (1731–41), which preceded Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740), anticipates the novel of sensibility in its glorification of a woman’s feelings and intuition. Le Paysan parvenu (1734–35; “The Fortunate Peasant”) is the story of a handsome opportunistic young peasant who uses his attractiveness to older women to advance in the world. Both works concern struggles to arrive in society and reflect the author’s rejection of authority and religious orthodoxy in favour of simple morality and naturalness. His attitude won him the wholehearted admiration of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Though Marivaux was elected to the French Academy in 1743 and became its director in 1759, he was not fully appreciated during his lifetime. He died quite impoverished and remained without real fame until his work was reappraised by the critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve in the 19th century. Marivaux has since been regarded as an important link between the Age of Reason and the Age of Romanticism.