BALZAC, JEAN-LOUIS GUEZ de. — French writer, b. 1597, d. 1654, and one of the most brilliant figures in the French literary world of the first half of the 17th century. A pupil of the Jesuits, he later served as an agent of Cardinal de la Vallette in Rome. Upon his return to Paris, he was appointed by Cardinal Richelieu as Councillor of State, member of the Académie Française, and historiographer of France. His fame rests on his Lettres (the first collection of which appeared in 1624), exchanged with the leading figures of his time, and for whose ornate and sonorous style he has been regarded as the reformer of French prose; yet too often bombastic and affected, he soon fell
BALZAC, JEAN-LOUIS GUEZ DE
