Marin Le Roy
Marin Le Roy, sieur de Gomberville, was a notable French writer born in Paris around 1600, recognized for his influential contributions to literature during the early 17th century. He began his literary career at a young age, publishing significant works such as *Discours des vertus et des vices de l'histoire* at just twenty. Le Roy is best known for his pastoral novel, *La Carithée*, which cleverly intertwined fictional characters with real-life events—a technique popular at the time. He is often credited as the inventor of the heroic romance, a literary genre that evolved from medieval chivalric tales, focusing on emotional analysis rather than mere action.
His major works include the five-volume novel *Polexandre* and the four-volume *Cythérée*, both of which reflect his deep engagement with the literary trends of his era. Le Roy's literary prowess earned him a place in the Académie Française, where he contributed to the development of the French language and participated in creating the Dictionnaire. In addition to his fiction, he translated Spanish literature and engaged with the intellectual community through the *Journal des Savants*. Later in life, Le Roy embraced Jansenism, which influenced his work *La Jeune Alcidiane*. He spent his final years in pious retirement, passing away on June 14, 1674, leaving a lasting legacy in both literature and the evolution of the French language.
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Marin Le Roy
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer
- Born: c. 1600
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Died: June 14, 1674
Biography
Marin Le Roy, sieur de Gomberville, was born in Paris, France, around 1600, the son of a barkeeper in the Chambre des Comptes. He began writing poetry at the age of fourteen. His book Discours des vertus et des vices de l’histoire, et de la maniere de la bien escrire, a discourse on historiography and writing, was written when he was twenty years old. He wrote a pastoral novel, La Carithée, in 1621. La Carithée depicted shepherds and shepherdesses but actually recounted real events and included a key for identifying the people behind the characters. This was a fashionable literary device of the period and was used to enhance the appeal of a work of fiction.
Le Roy made significant contributions to the précieux novel genre of the period and is often credited as the inventor of the heroic romance. This genre drew upon the chivalric romance of the Middle Ages but recounted adventures in the refined language of the précieux movement and was more concerned with analyzing emotions than with depicting action. Le Roy’s wrote the five-volume novel Polexandre (1637; The History of Polealexander, 1647), and the four-volume novel Cythérée (1640). In addition to writing novels, he translated Spanish works, wrote a preface to the poetry of François Mainard, and contributed to the Journal des Savants.
In 1634, he was admitted to the Académie Française as the twenty-first member. Le Roy was one of the most active and devoted members of the Académie. Admired for the purity and correctness of his language, he participated in the project to create the Dictionnaire, which was to be the final authority on the French language. He also played an important role in writing the bylaws of the Académie. The Académie often met at his home. He delivered the ninth oration of the Académie, “Que lorsqu’un siècle a produit un excellent héros, il s’est trouvé des personnes capable de le louer” (When a century produces a great hero, there will be people capable of praising him), a very fitting subject for a writer of heroic romance, for this was precisely what the genre did.
Sometime in the 1640’s, Le Roy accepted the religious doctrine of Port-Royal des Champs and became a Jansenist. Inspired by his new religious beliefs, he wrote La Jeune Alcidiane in 1651 in an attempt to correct any harm done by his earlier novels. He spent the rest of his life in pious retirement, and he died on June 14, 1674. Le Roy played an important role in the development of the French language through the contributions he made to the work of the Acadëmie Française. His fictional writings were significant in the creation of the new genre, the heroic romance, that flourished in France and in England until 1660.