Nicolas Edme Restif La Bretonne
Portrait of Nicolas Edme Restif La Bretonne in 1785
Other names	Mr. Nicolas, the Owl, the Spectator night, Mr. Dulis Mr. Saxancour
Activity (s)	Printer , writer
Birth	23 October 1734 Sacy
Deaths	3 February 1806 (71 years) Paris
Writing language	French
Genre (s)	Roman , news , drama , autobiography
Major works
The Peasant perverted, Mr. Nicolas , Les Nuits de Paris

Nicolas Edme Restif (/ e.tif / , is a writer French born Sacy , near Auxerre, in a house currently located 115 Grande Rue, 23 October 1734. Eight years after his birth, he moved with his family's farm in La Bretonne (now "The Mtaierie"), located in the same village. He died in Paris at 16 rue de la Bcherie on 3 February 1806.

Son of peasants from the Yonne worker became typographer at Auxerre and Dijon, La Bretonne Nicolas Restif moved to Paris in 1761 : then he begins to write. It has a complicated personal life and is probably a police informer. For his work in printing, he met writers such as Beaumarchais , Louis-Sebastien Mercier , La Grimod Reyniere or Cazotte.

Polygraph , he published numerous works relating to all types of erotic novel ( L'Anti-Justine, or the delights of love ) the evidence on Paris and the Revolution ( Les Nuits de Paris or the Spectator night , 1788-1794, 8 volumes) through the biography with the life of my father (1779) where he paints a rosy picture of the peasantry before the Revolution with the positive figure of his father. He also touched the theater without much success. Constantly seeking financial resources - in fact he died in poverty - he also wrote many pieces to reform the way the world works.

However the major work of the Breton Restif is its vast autobiography , Monsieur Nicolas , in eight volumes between 1794 and 1797 installments. This book is as river reconstruction of a life of torment and exposes the author / narrator as about fatherhood - the full title is Mr. Nicolas or the Human Heart unveiled - but also reflects its time and is an abundant source of information on rural life and the world of printers in the eighteenth century.

Youth

Born on 23 October 1734 at Sacy, Restif is the eldest son of Edme Restif Ferlet and Barbara . The couple has eight children, including Marie-Genevieve, born on 26 December 1738 , and Peter, born on 21 August 1744 , who will succeed his father on the farm. Rich farmer, Edme buys the house and estate of La Bretonne, east of Sacy, on 12 March 1740 , the family moved there in 1742 .

Boarded with his half-sister Anne Vermenton in July 1745 , the young Nicolas then goes to Joux , in the schoolmaster Christophe Berthier, in October. On 17 October 1746 , he moved to Bicetre , where, under the authority of his half-brother Thomas, tonsured cleric, he was a student at the School of choirboys from the hospital. Forced to leave Bictre under the control of the new Archbishop of Paris , Christophe de Beaumont , against Jansenism , the brothers return to Auxerre on 20 December 1747. At the end of the month, Nicolas is Courgis in his half-brother and godfather, the village priest. There, he falls secretly in 1748 , Jeannette Rousseau, daughter of the notary, he will think long to marry, even after her divorce when she was already dead. It begins in 1749 , to take his notebooks, or Memoranda, where he wrote his first poetic essays and two acts of a comedy in Latin prose imitation of Terence ^, .

Referred by his half-brother in November 1750 for his insubordination and because he looks too young girls, he returned to Sacy, where he devoted himself for eighteen months to work in the fields ^, .

Restif is very delicate health, originally destined for the Church, but it seems more of a womanizer, what makes him give up the priesthood.

First shepherd in his village, his parents sent him on 14 July 1751 as an apprentice typesetter at Auxerre at the printer Franois Fournier where he falls for his boss's wife, Marguerite Collet, born in 1724 , passed in his work as the "Paragon Collette" and became friends with Timothy Louis Loiseau, who arrived in learning the 15 July 1754. Become a typographer, he went to Paris in 1755 where he became a journeyman printer, and between the Imprimerie Royal Louvre September 22. Joined by Loiseau in September 1756 , he then worked at the printer Spiking, Notre Dame, and is boarding at Happy Sellier Street Galande. In 1757 , he gets a job at Andr Knapen, printing of posters, papers and pamphlets of lawyers and settled in an attic, rue Sainte-Anne-du-Palais .

He claimed that he married in March 1759 with a young Englishwoman, Harriet Kircher, eager to acquire French nationality through a thorny process of inheritance. Behind this story, according to Daniel Baruch, would hide a case of espionage. The Irishman Theobald Taaffe, Agent Choiseul , allegedly committed in the context of the repression that hit the community of booksellers and printers in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven - 1759 , after the bombing of Damiens cons Louis XV and under fights anti- Jansenists , to denounce the illegal printing behind anti-government placards .

Anyway, he left Paris to Dijon before returning home Fournier, Auxerre . On 22 April 1760 , he married Agnes Lebgue Auxerre , with whom he has four daughters, Agnes, Mary, Elizabeth, said Elise or Babiche, and Marie-Anne, said Marion . In June 1761 , the couple moved to Paris, where Restif worked in various print until 1767. His father died on 16 December 1763 at the age of 73. After this event, go to Restif Sacy, where his brother Peter succeeded Edme and where Marion was born. Leaving behind his wife and daughter shortly after Restif returns to Paris, where he worked with Quillau. The couple found in 1765 and settled Rue de la Harpe , with their oldest daughter, Agnes. In 1766 , Restif met Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Nougaret .

Endowed with a vivid imagination and often extravagant, an observant mind, and at the same time, a temperament that makes him loose living without brakes, he studied closely the popular customs that reproduced later in the greatest detail when he started in the 1760s , to write.

Literary career

In 1767 , Restif published his first important work, the family virtuous and abandons his job. This initial work is followed among others perverted the Peasant ( 1775 ), which contributes to make known the life of my father ( 1778 ), the Contemporary ( 1780 ) that made him famous, perverted the Peasant ( 1784 ) , Parisian women ( 1787 ), Ingenue Saxancourt ( 1789 ) and Anti-Justine ( 1793 ).

Moreover, still in 1767 , according to several biographers, the activities of spies continue to concern the middle of printing, it becomes "fly" or indicator of police, which he would have remained until 1789 .

Finally, Agnes Lebgue sold in 1767 fabrics in the Paris region. From 1768 , Restif and his wife live increasingly separate. After the death of his mother 6 July 1771 , at the age of 68 years, Restif sold his share of estate to his brother Peter in 1773 , while his daughter Agnes is placed in a milliner, close to the "Aunt Bizet, half-sister of the writer, and Agnes Lebgue share in the provinces with Marion .

Installed in 1776 at 44, rue de Bievre (currently No. 16-20), at Mrs. Debe, in a home that his wife leaves him, he met in 1780 the young Sarah, daughter of his landlady, who inspires such The last adventure of a man of forty-five ( 1783 ). In 1778 , Agnes returned to live with his father, while Marion is placed until 1783. In 1779 , Restif meeting Beaumarchais , who offered him the leadership of the printing works of Voltaire to Kehl and with whom he maintains close relations also little known between 1785 and 1791 , perhaps related to the estate of the Duke of Choiseul, the businessman is the principal trustee of the creditors ^, .

The same year, as he walks the streets of Paris and the Ile Saint-Louis , the night, dubbing himself "the owl," he began to write on bridges and walls. After marriage, ¹May 1781 , Agnes Restif with Charles-Marie Aug, a son was born on December 28. However, Sara Restif leaves and rue de Bievre, and settled 10 Bernardine Street , where his daughter Marion joins him on 2 January 1785. Then, on July 21 , after the first fugue January 31 , Agnes fled the marital home and is also coming with his father. Shortly thereafter, on November 26 , Restif and his wife finally separated .

Illustration of the Nights of Paris.

On 22 December 1786 , "at seven o'clock in the evening," began writing Restif Nuits de Paris, which reflects, according to specialists, its use of "fly" in the service of the royal police, in effect, the text is full of indications of its links with the police that he seems able to call any time he rides armed with sticks, guns and wearing a blue coat, police uniforms, he threatens those he challenges of appealing to authority, went constantly to the guard, etc..

In 1782 , he became acquainted with Louis-Sebastien Mercier and La Grimod Reyniere (with whom he broke in 1792 ). On 8 June 1787 , he went for the first time at Fanny de Beauharnais , where he met Cazotte and Cubires. In 1788 , after a quarrel with the Attorney Poincloud, principal tenant, "he settled at 11, rue de la Bcherie , where he remained until 1797 , before moving to No. 9 in the same street (currently No. 16), his last home.

At the advent of the Revolution , he was arrested on 14 July and 29 October 1789 , and led to the guard on denouncing Aug, who accuses him of being a spy for the king. In 1790 , he set up a small printing at home, it also prints a piece of Mercier Bonneville Social Circle in 1792. In 1791 , his daughter Marion married his cousin, the son of Peter, born in 1769 , working with Restif. On 11 January 1794 is the divorce of Agnes Restif and Auge, followed on July 15 by the death of Marion's husband, leaving her alone with three children. Then on August 17 , Agnes Lebgue gives birth to a son, born of his association with Louis Vignon . For its part, permanently separated from his wife since 26 November 1785 , he divorced the 4 February 1794. The same year, he decided to write his autobiography, Monsieur Nicolas, eight volumes ranged between 1794 and 1797.

During the Terror , he brushes the arrest. Witnessed the events of the Revolution, he published the Palais-Royal ( 1790 ), Les Nuits de Paris ( 1793 ). Despite his aristocratic friends, his writings are carefully reoriented to the new power.

Ruined by the fall of the scrip , and just doing the writing life, the Convention shall grant in 1795 2 000 francs on the amount allocated by the Government to writers in need. In April-May, he was hospitalized for acute urinary .

In 1796 , he tried in vain to gain admittance to the Institute , but receives aid from five pounds of bread per day. After installation of Marion and her three daughters at home in 1797 , he participated in a competition launched by the administrative assembly of the Allier and was appointed as professor of history at the Central School of Moulins the 14 Floreal, Year VI ( 3 May 1798 ). However, having obtained the 20 April 1798 , a Senior Deputy Chief at the second section of the second direction Ministry of General Police, Division of intercepted letters, that is to say, the Cabinet Black , paid 4,000 francs a year, he remains in Paris. However, under the Consulate , the service is discontinued, and he loses his job on 24 Prairial year X ( 13 June 1802 ), although it affects his treatment until August 12 . The July 2 and the Posthumous The Pens birds seized from him. In 1803 , pension and relief he seeks, but is given as 50 francs, it also receives in 1804. After a new request for help in 1805 , he died in poverty the three in February 1806. His remains are buried on February 5 at St. Catherine Cemetery (currently No. 58-66 of the Boulevard Saint-Marcel ) .

Agnes Lebgue dies at his eldest daughter on 29 August 1808 , Agnes Restif in 1812 , Marion 1836. Aug is the son of a printer, the writer of Vignon .

Writer

Sculpture Auxerre Restif representative of Brittany.

Admirer of the ideas of Rousseau , whom he considered the rest little talent, Restif wanted, like him, make plans for social reform, and showed in what he wrote on the government, education, women , theater, etc.., singularity and the strangeness, but also the boldness, originality, accuracy sometimes. The Marquis de Sade and Restif, whose views are almost opposite, hating, first said the second he slept with a press at the foot of her bed while Restif treated Sade "monster", a term that it is particularly fond, and found frequently in his writing. However, it was especially appreciated Benjamin Constant , of Gabriel Senac de Meillan and Schiller. Heavily criticized by purists as La Harpe (we nicknamed him as "the Voltaire of the chambermaids" or "the Rousseau of the gutter" but Lavater called the " Richardson French "), Gerard de Nerval devotes a biography in The illuminated, and been admired by the surrealists , in particular, who rediscover.

Printer, it also intended to reform the language, spelling and syntax , creating many new words, eg "etlrst" for "etc.. "," Retaliation "for" subject to the law of retaliation, "" pornographer "," gynographe "," mimographe "... Similarly, it is a precursor to the use of" implementation "in its substantive to designate the manner of dress, criticized in his day job.

Philosopher reformer long ignored, he considered all social problems, including taboos (prostitution, incest, etc..) Recommending solutions also often conservative and repressive, but also devised a form of agrarian communism. St. Simon and Fourier inspired them, while concealing their progeny .

His books are mostly erotic illustrated with women tiny feet and mouth round. That the girls of the Palais-Royal is presented as a guide, but rather a series of interviews, like a journalist. He was responding to those who criticized him the choice of his subjects, he wrote books on medicine moral principles that are honest and that he could paint pure morals since the century had corrupted morals. Although his style is currently of great dullness and often incorrect, nevertheless found Restif tables smiling and friendly, accents and moved from the heart, naive and true dialogue without coarseness, pages endearing or energetic. Her fertility was extraordinary, and his great success. At a time when so many works fadement libertine filled the parlors and salons, part of the public grew to love novels that bore the stamp of truth and frankness.

This polygraph , author of novels, but also plays, a great autobiography in the tradition of Rousseau's and just as endearing, in a utopia and many reform projects (on prostitution, theater, the situation of women, morality, law), is the subject of renewed curiosity on the part of the academic critic who saw in him one of the most exemplary representatives of the Enlightenment Seconds (end of the century).

Bibliography

• Family virtuous (Paris, 1767 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• Lucile, or the Progress of Virtue ( 1768 , in-18).
• The foot Fanchette ( 1769 , 3 vols. 12mo).
• The Natural Daughter ( 1769 , 2 vols. 12mo).
• The Pornographer (London, 1769 , in-8).
  Work in which he presented a draft reform of prostitution.
• The Mimographe (Amsterdam, 1770 , in 8 ).
  Work on a reform plan for the theater.
• Singular Ideas, 1770.
• The Marquis de T ... (London, 1771 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• Adele ( 1772 , 5 vols. 12mo).
• Women in the three states of daughter, wife and mother (London, 1773 , 3 vols. 12mo).
• The Paris Housekeeping (Paris, 1773 , 2 vols. 12mo).
• The New Memoirs of a man of quality ( 1774 , 2 vols. 12mo).
• The Peasant perverted, or the dangers of the city, 1775 , 1776 , 4 vols. in-12.
• The School for Fathers ( 1776 , 3 vols. in-8).
• The Gynographes or ideas of two honest women on a draft resolution to put women in their place ( 1777 , in-8).
• The forties ( 1777 , 2 vols. 12mo).
• The New Abelard, or Letters of two lovers who have never seen ( 1778 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• Life with my father ( 1779 , 2 vols. 12mo).
• Paternal Curse ( 1780 , 3 vols. 12mo).
• The Contemporary, and Adventures of the prettiest women of this age ( 1780 - 85 , 42 vol. 12mo).
• Southern Discovery by a Flying Man or The Daedalus French ( 1781 )
• Andrographis, or ideas to make a general reform of morals ( 1782 , in-8).
• The last adventure of a man of forty-five years ( 1783 , 12mo).
• Prevention National Action for the scene ( 1784 , 3 vols. 12mo).
• The Peasant perverted ( 1784 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• Evenings on the Marais, or History of the Prince and Princess Oribeau Oribelle ( 1785 , 2 vols. 12mo), repr. under the title of the Teacher of a royal prince ( 1791 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• The French ( 1786 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• Les Parisiennes ( 1787 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• Les Nuits de Paris or the Spectator night ( 1788 - 1 794 , 8 vols. 12mo).
• Women's unfaithful ( 1788 , 4 vols. 12mo).
• Ingenue Saxancour, or separated women ( 1789 , 3 vols. 12mo).
• The Thesmographe or ideas to make a general reform of laws ( 1789 , in-8).
• Monument suit the physical and moral, of the late eighteenth ^century ( Neuwied , 1789 , fol.).
• The Palais-Royal (Paris, 1790 , 3 vols. 12mo).
• The Year of the ladies national history day by day and a woman in France ( 1791 - 94 , 12 vol. 12mo).
• The drama of life, containing a whole man, part in thirteen acts of shadows and into ten parts regular ( 1793 , 5 vols. 12mo).
• Monsieur Nicolas or the Human Heart released ( 1794 - 97 , 16 vol. 12mo).
• The philosophy of Nicolas ( 1796 , 3 vols., in-12).
• The Anti-Justine or the delights of love , 1798 , erotic works seized by police in 1802.

Restif still published under the title Theatre ( 1793 , 5 vols. 12mo), a series of pieces that were not represented.

References

Sources partial

• Gustave Vapereau , Universal Dictionary of literature, Paris, Hachette, 1876, p. 1721-2.
• Jean-Ren Suratteau, Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution, Soboul Albert (ed.), Quadriga / PUF, 1989, p. 897-98.

See also

Bibliography

• Branko Aleksic, A book ringed Retif, Rhubarb, 2006, 117 pages ( ISBN 2952367566 )
• Mohammed Bakkali-Yedra:
  • The woman in Retif de la Bretonne, Paris VIII-Vincennes, 1972
  • Monsieur Nicolas or the hero cursed Test reading fictional character in Retif de la Bretonne, ANRT, 1985
• Daniel Baruch Restif of Brittany, Paris, Editions Fayard, 1996 ( ISBN 2213596719 )
• Frederick Bassani, Retif de la Bretonne and the City, University of Human Sciences in Strasbourg, Study Group XVIII ^century, Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 1993, 199 pages ( ISBN 2868201261 )
• Maurice Blanchot, Sade and Restif La Bretonne, Paris, Editions Complexe, "literary eye series, No. 5, 1986, 160 pages ( ISBN 2870271948 )
• Michel Delon, Retif de la Bretonne, Europe / Messidor, 1990, 219 pages
• Batrice Didier, Jacques Neefs, Annie Angremy, The End of the Ancien Regime (Manuscripts of the Revolution I) Sade Retif, Beaumarchais, Laclos, Presses Universitaires de Vincennes , 1991, 203 pages ( ISBN 2903981701 )
• Jean M. Goulemot, Retif de la Bretonne, University of Lille III, 1989, 158 pages
• Claude Klein, Restif of Breton and his double - the double in the genesis of epistolary novels Restif de la Bretonne (1775-1787), Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 1995, 323 pages ( ISBN 2868203434 )
• Cecile Isabelle Righeschi-Caldwell, controversial figure: Retif de la Bretonne (1734-1806) and wife, University of Oklahoma , 2006, 432 pages
• Ned Rival, The perverted love: a biography of Nicolas-Edme Rtif La Bretonne, Perrin, 1982, 347 pages ( ISBN 2262002657 )
• Pierre Testud:
  • Restive of the Breton and creative writing, University of Lille III, 1977, 729 pages
  • Restive de la Bretonne (1734-1806): I was born author, so to speak, Library of Auxerre, 2006, 96 pages ( ISBN 2914315155 )
• Robert Thibault, the dress in the work of Retif de la Bretonne, Sade and Reveron Saint-Cyr: test ethno-Stilista, ANRT University of Lille, 1986
• Laurent Turcot The walker in Paris in the eighteenth century, Paris, Gallimard, 2007.

Conferences

• Jean-Marie Graitson (ed.), Sade, Retif de la Bretonne and the forms of the novel during the French Revolution: Proceedings ^of the 3rd International Colloquium paraliterature Chaudfontaine, CLPCF Publishing, 1989, 208 pages
• Living the Revolution Retif de la Bretonne conference proceedings of Tours, 22-24 June 1989, Company Rtif La Bretonne, 1990
• Restive of the Breton and Utopia: Proceedings of the Symposium of Auxerre: 18-19 September 1992, the Company Rtif Breton, 1992, 162 pages
• Restive of the Breton and the new: proceedings of the Colloquium of Poitiers, 17 and 18 June 1994, the Company Rtif Bretonne, 1994
• Restive and image: Proceedings of the symposium, House of the human sciences and society, Poitiers, 21-23 October 1999, the Company Rtif Breton, 2000, 213 pages
• The literary world Retif de la Bretonne: Proceedings of international symposium of Aix-en-Provence, January 24-25, 2002, University of Provence, Faculty of Humanities, Centre Aachen studies and research on the ten- eighth century, the Company Rtif Bretonne, 2002
• Restive of Breton and his readers: Proceedings of the Symposium Poitiers, 19 and 20 May 2006, the Company Rtif Breton, 2006, 262 pages

External Links

• Official website of the Company Rtif La Bretonne with biography, bibliography, news, articles, etc..
• Works Rtif La Bretonne on Gallica
• Nicolas Edme Rtif La Bretonne, Sacy, Paris

• Literature portal
• Portal of the eighteenth ^century

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