SIEUR DE SOUVIGNY See also:CHARLES See also:SOREL (1597-1674)
, See also:French novelist and See also:miscellaneous writer, was See also:born in See also:Paris about 1597
.
Very little is known of his See also:life except that in 1635 he was historiographer of See also:France
.
He wrote on See also:science, See also:history and See also:religion, but is only remembered by his novels
.
He tried to destroy the See also:vogue of the See also:pastoral See also:romance by See also:writing a novel of See also:adventure, the Histoire comique de Francion (1622)
.
The episodical adventures of Francion found many readers, who nevertheless reserved their admiration for the Astree it was intended to ridicule
.
See also:Sorel decided to make his intention unmistakable, and in Le Berger extravagant (3 vols., 1627) he wrote a See also:burlesque, in which a Parisian See also:shop-boy, his See also:head turned by sentiment, chooses an unprepossessing See also:mistress and starts life as a shepherd with a dozen See also:sheep on the See also:banks of the See also:Seine
.
Sorel did not succeed in See also:founding the novel of See also:character, and what he accomplished was more in the direction of See also:farce, but he struck a shrewd See also:blow at romance
.
Among his other See also:works are Polyandre (1648) and La Connaissance See also:des bons livres (1673)
.
He died in Paris on the 8th of See also:March 1674
.
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