MARIVAUX, mfm'Mvyer', PIERRE CARLET DE CHANIBLAIN Do (16SA-1763). A French dram atist important in t he development of French comedy, and a novelist, epoch-making in the evolution of French (lotion. Ile was born in Paris, February 4, i688; bus father a Norman, director of the :%lint at Ilium in Au vergne, where and at Limoges Marivaux passed his youth. llis literary taste developed early. At eighteen he had written a play, Le purr pruilmit et equitable (published 17121. and between•1713 and 1715 he produced three romances, Effets sur pl,maut.s de la sympathie, Ln ,oituri //1 /MU and Le Don VaiehoD modern,, all wholly lint of key with his later work. Then, falling under the influence of the parodist I,a \loft,, he under took to travesty Homer and F(.nelon. but turned front this ignoble task to the produet ion of essays the of the Sprrh/ for for the journal I.r Mereurr (1717). These keenness. also preciosity. The year 1720 marks a turning point in Marivaux's genius and fortune. lit lost his considerable wealth in the Nlississippi seheme, became dependent on his pen, xvrote a poor tragedy, Annibal, and a good comedy, ricquin poll par l'amour, and started the Spcctateur Francais, a weekly "Spectator," that might have succeeded if his unmethodical habits had allowed it to appear regularly. For the next, twenty years he supported himself as a playwright, suc ceeding in comedy at the Italian Theatre and failing in tragedy at the ThNitre Francais. The
more noteworthy of his thirty plays are: Lcs surprises de l'amoer (1722): Lr triomplic dc Pilaus (1728) : jeu de rumour et du hasard (17311) ; legs ( 1736) : and Les [outset con/i d aces (1737). He founded two other unsuc cessful journals, and in 1731 began the publica tion of a novel. Marianne, which he left incom plete :it its eleventh part in 1742. Madame Iliceibuni finished it. In 1735 lie began Le paysan parmin, which also remained a torso. Yet these are his most important works. In 1736 he was elected to the Academy. Late in life lie received a from Helvetii's (q.v.) and an other from Aladanie de Pompadour (q.v.). He died February 12. 1763. Marivaux shows him self in his dramas and in his fiction interested primarily in the analysis and display of human feeling. He drew in both his novels pictures of contemporary society and of Parisian street life that remained unequaled for a century in their impressionistic realism, hut his delight is in verbal surprise—a somewhat affected style known in French literature as ma rira uda gr. Marivaux's Works are in 10 vols. ( Paris, 1827-30). There is a modern edition of the plays by Fournier and also of Marianne. Consult: Mariraux inconnu ( Pa rig. 1850 ) ; Fleury. Mariraux et lc mariraudage 1881) : Gossot. Mariraux mo ralists I551) ; La rromnet .1/ ociraux, sa rie et sex (mares (ib., 1S94) ; and Deschamps, Mari raux (ib.. 1807).