Saint Simon on Louis XIV 1755
Channel: Age of Enlightenment
Date: 2016-01-21

This is the introduction to Saint-Simon's Memoirs of Louis XIV from France.  Here is the text to the whole book. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3875

Louis de Rouvroy, who later became the Duc de Saint-Simon, was born in Paris, January 16, 1675. He claimed descent from Charlemagne, but the story goes that his father, as a young page of Louis XIII., gained favour with his royal master by his skill in holding the stirrup, and was finally made a duke and peer of France.

Go here to read the reception of these letters from Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve 1804-1869
https://archive.org/stream/portraitsofmen00sainrich#page/77/mode/1up