Alain-René Le Sage

Alain-René Le Sage (1668-1747), French novelist and playwright, born in Sarzeau, Brittany. Le Sage studied law and was admitted to the bar in Paris in 1692 but decided to devote himself to writing. His first successful works were a one-act comic romance, a picaresque novel, and the play Turcaret (1709). Subsequently he wrote about 100 comedies for the Théâtre de la Foire, the comic opera held in booths during festivals. Le Sage's place in literary history was established by his picaresque novel Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (1715-1735; trans. 1749). This tale of the adventures of a rogue was written in the style of the Spanish picaresque romances of the 16th and 17th centuries. One of the earliest important realistic novels in European fiction, Gil Blas exerted considerable influence, particularly on the English novelists Tobias Smollet and Henry Fielding.