HERMANT, ABEL (1862— ), French author and dram atist, was born in Paris on Feb. 3, 1862. A brilliant wit and an exquisite stylist, he consistently devoted his abundant talents to describing the lighter side of life. His most characteristic works are those grouped under the general title, Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la societe (19o5), in which with unfaltering gaiety and a humour saved only by the delicacy of its expression from appearing scabrous, he mocks the aristocracy and wealthy bourgeoisie of France. He excels, too, in long series of amusing dialogues. Le Caravanserail (1917), a study of rich foreigners plunged into the cosmopolitan circles of Paris, is perhaps his best known work, but the series of Scenes de la vie des tours et des ambassades, which includes La carriere (1894) and Le sceptre (1900), no less pungently portrays the complications of diplo macy in a dignified central European court. Among his plays may be noted La meute (1896), a comedy of parasites, and Sylvie, ou la curieuse d'amour (1900), which with infinite grace displays the reactions of a light-headed woman to the successive phases of revolutionary and imperial France. A more ambitious work is the long novel, Le cycle de lord Chelsea, 4 vols. (1923)• See Peltier, Abel Hermant (1924) .