Quand Versailles Etait Conte... La Cour de Louis XIV Par Les Ecrivains de Son Temps

English summary: This book takes readers on a literary tour of Louis XIV's court, revealing how writers who had the leisure to frequent and observe the court talked about it, marvelled at it, ridiculed it, admired it - and scrutinized it: great authors such as Moliere, La Fontaine and La Bruyere, Bossuet and Saint-Simon, Mesdames de La Fayette and de Sevigne, as well as some lesser-known writers - attentive memorialists or well-informed princes - and even the Sun King himself, to name but a few. Their prime motivation was not so much a desire to record historical events as it was a passion for literature which they wanted to convey to their readers to help them appreciate their insights and cutting remarks, the melodious incisiveness and breadth of their language, their concise turn of phrase and witticisms - skills typical of such authors, whom we may be wrong to label as classical - and only classical. What emerges from this tribute to the pen and to scholarly thought are some analytical and satirical truths about the court life of yesteryear which are still relevant today because they shed light on certain aspects of our own era.

French description: Voici une promenade litteraire qui prend pour sujet la cour de Louis XIV. On voudrait y montrer comment en parlaient, s'en etonnaient, s'en moquaient, l'admiraient ou la fouaillaient les ecrivains qui eurent le loisir de la frequenter et de l'observer: les grands, Moliere, La Fontaine ou La Bruyere, Bossuet et Saint-Simon, Mmes de La Fayette ou de Sevigne; et puis quelques secondes plumes aussi, memorialistes attentifs ou princes bien informes, et jusqu'au Roi Soleil lui-meme. Rien d'exhaustif dans ces choix. Plus que le souci d'analyse historique, le plaisir litteraire les a gouvernes, qui voudrait se transmettre au lecteur: lui faire savourer le coup d'oeil et le coup de patte, la musique de la langue incisive et pleine, l'economie du tour et du trait, signatures de ces auteurs qu'on a peut-etre tort de dire classiques, de ne dire que classiques.Un hommage a la plume et a l'esprit, qui suggere sur la cour d'alors et de toujours quelques verites d'analyse et de satire propres a eclairer aussi notre temps.