BUSSY RABUTIN’S SATIRES ON THE COURT

Abstract

Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy (1618-93), a member of the Académie française, was a writer of epistles and personal biography which chronicle his military exploits and libertine thought. Because he wrote the Histoire amoureuse des Gaules (1665), which mocks the sexual escapades of some members of the court, he was exiled to his estate for nearly two decades, and suffered much disappointment due to his lack of royal favour. The publication of the first letters of Mme de Sévigné, his cousin, were appended to an edition of his book, although her literary reputation eclipsed his, beginning early in the eighteenth century.