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JEAN LOUIS GUEZ DE BALZAC (1594-1654)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 301 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JEAN See also:LOUIS GUEZ DE See also:BALZAC (1594-1654)  , See also:French author, was See also:born at Angou.leme in 1594 . At the See also:age of eighteen he travelled in See also:Holland with See also:Theophile de Viand, with whom he later exchanged See also:bitter recriminations . He was See also:early befriended by the duc d'See also:Epernon and his son See also:Louis, See also:Cardinal de la Valette, who took him to See also:Rome . His letters written to his acquaintances and to many who held a high position at the French See also:court gained for him a See also:great reputation . Compliments were showered upon him, he became an habitue of the Hotel de See also:Rambouillet, and his See also:head appears to have been turned a little by his success . See also:Richelieu was lavish of praise and promises, but never offered See also:Balzac the preferment he expected . In 1624 a collection of his Lettres was published, and was received with great favour . From the See also:chateau of Balzac, whither he had retired, he continued to correspond with See also:Jean See also:Chapelain, Valentin See also:Conrart and others . In 1634 he was elected to the See also:Academy . He died at See also:Angouleme on the 18th of See also:February 1654 . His fame rests chiefly upon the Lettres, a second collection of which appeared in 1636 . Recueil de nouvelles lettres was printed in the next See also:year .

His letters, though empty and affected in See also:

matter, show a real mastery of See also:style, introducing a new clearness and precision into French See also:prose and encouraging the development of the See also:language on See also:national lines by emphasizing its most idiomatic elements . Balzac has thus the See also:credit of executing in French prose a reform parallel to Maiherbe's in See also:verse . In 163r he published an eulogy of Louis XIII. entitled Le See also:Prince; in 1652 the Socrate chretien, the best of his longer See also:works; Aristippe ou de la Cour in 1658; and several See also:dissertations on style . His Euvres were collected (2 vols.) in 1665 by See also:Valentine Conrart . There are numerous See also:English See also:translations from Balzac, dating from the 17th See also:century .

End of Article: JEAN LOUIS GUEZ DE BALZAC (1594-1654)
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