SAINT-SIMON, LOUIS de ROUVROY, Duke of. Born in Paris on 15 Jan. 1675, died there on 2 Mar. 1755. He fought in Belgium and Germany, then in 1702 abandoned his military career and, after the death of the Regent, the Duke of Orléans, also left the court.
A Peer of France, Saint-Simon was proud—even vain—about his birth, rank, and the feudal prestige of the nobility. As early as 1694 he began writing his *Mémoires* in scattered notes, which later served him for a more orderly composition (1740–50). However, the manuscript was sequestered after his death; only a partial edition, derived from an imperfect copy, was published until a complete edition appeared (2 vols., Paris 1829–30). Saint-Simon wrote the *Mémoires* less to produce a historical work than to vent his personal longings and passions; hence many details are inaccurate and some facts distorted. Yet the *Mémoires* possess a twofold value: the skill in reviving the personalities he knew and the dramatic power in recreating the scenes he witnessed; classical yet unconcerned with purism, he always adapted word and syntax to thought rather than to grammatical or rhetorical rules.