Antoine Houdar de la Motte [SEP] native language
Antoine Houdar de la Motte
Antoine Houdar de la Motte (18 January 167226 December 1731) was a French author.
De la Motte was born and died in Paris. In 1693 his comedy, "Les Originaux" (Les originaux, ou, l'Italien), was a complete failure, and so depressed the author that he contemplated joining the Trappists. Four years later he began writing texts for operas and ballets, e.g. "L'Europe galante" (1697), and tragedies, one of which, "Inès de
heroic novels of the preceding century, with a certain mixture of the marvelous.
Then Marivaux's literary ardour took a new phase. He parodied Homer to serve the cause of Antoine Houdar de La Motte, (1672–1731) an ingenious paradoxer; Marivaux had already done something similar for François Fénelon, whose "Telemachus" he parodied and updated as "Le Telemaque travesti" (written in 1714 but not published until 1736). His friendship with Antoine Houdar de La Motte introduced him to the "Mercure", the chief