Laurent Angliviel de La Beaumelle

Laurent de La Angliviel Beaumelle (* January 28, 1726 at Valleraugue, Gard, † November 17, 1773 ) was a French writer.

La Beaumelle met in Geneva on the Reformed Church, and was appointed in 1749 as a professor of French literature at the University of Copenhagen. In 1751 he came almost simultaneously with Voltaire, at the invitation of the Prussian king Frederick the Great's Sanssouci (Potsdam). Through his Mes pensées to La Beaumelle fell out soon with Voltaire and returned in 1752 with deadly hatred against Voltaire returned to Paris.

Due to his Notes sur le siècle de Louis XIV La Beaumelle in 1753 arrested and locked up in the Bastille. Soon after his release, the publication of his Mémoires de la Maintenon took him again for a year in jail. In both cases Voltaire said to have been at play. After his release La Beaumelle settled as a freelance writer in Toulouse. 1770 made ​​him King Louis XV. at the Bibliothèque royale appointed and granted him a pension.

Reception

Most of his writings bear a polemic, yes pamphletartigen character or speculate (like the letters contained in the Mémoires of Madame de Maintenon ) to the curiosity of the audience; his best writing is undoubtedly the excellent wit, spirit and energy Réponse au siècle de Louis XIV Supplément you, ou Lettres à Voltaire (1754, 1763), his worst of the Commentaire sur la Henriade ( 1775), a true pattern incompetent, pathetic criticism.

Works (selection)

• Mes pensées. Copenhagen 1751 ( Glogau 1754)
• Notes sur le siècle de Louis XIV
• Mémoires de la Maintenon. Amsterdam 1755/56 (9 vols ) Memoire for the history of Madame de Maintenon and of the load- age. Translated by Charlotte Lennox. Printed by A. Millar and J. Nourse, London 1757th