page_title: 18th-century French literature
section_title: Other genres of 18th century French literature
hierarchical_section_title: 18th-century French literature / Other genres of 18th century French literature
context_page_description: 18th-century French literature is French literature written between 1715, the year of the death of King Louis XIV of France, and 1798, the year of the coup d'État of Bonaparte which brought the Consulate to power, concluded the French Revolution, and began the modern era of French history. This century of enormous economic, social, intellectual and political transformation produced two important literary and philosophical movements: during what became known as the Age of Enlightenment, the Philosophes questioned all existing institutions, including the church and state, and applied rationalism and scientific analysis to society; and a very different movement, which emerged in reaction to the first movement; the beginnings of Romanticism, which exalted the role of emotion in art and life.
  In common with a similar movement in England at the same time, the writers of 18th century France were critical, skeptical and innovative. Their lasting contributions were the ideas of liberty, toleration, humanitarianism, equality, and progress, which became the ideals of modern western democracy.
context_section_description: The genre of modern art criticism was launched by Diderot in Salons, in which he analyzed the way emotions could be created by works of art, using the example of the feelings inspired by the poetic ruins painted by Hubert Robert.
  Georges-Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon, popularized the scientific discoveries of his century with the massive Histoire naturelle (Natural History), published with great success between 1749 and 1789.
  During the French Revolution, political speeches became a popular genre of literature with the publication of the speeches of such talented orators as Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, Georges Danton and  Maximilien Robespierre.
caption: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, by François-Hubert Drouais.
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