Bitef

sense of nuance and the finer shades of feeling, and deft and witty wordplay. This verbal preciousness is still known as marivaudage and reflects the sensitivity and sophistication of the era. Marivaux also made notable advances in realism; his servants are given real feelings, and the social milieu is depicted precisely. Among the 30odd plays are the satires L'lsle des esclaves (1725; Isle of Slaves) and Elsie de la raison (1727; Isle of Reason), which mock European society after the manner of Gulliver's Travels. La Colombe (1792; The Dove) treats equality between the sexes, and L'Ecole des mères (1724; The School for Mothers) studies mother-daughter rapport. Marivaux human psychology is best revealed in his romance novels, both unfinished; La Vie de Marianne (1731-41), which preceded Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740), anticipates the novel of sensibility in its glorification of a woman's feelings and intuition, and Le Paysan parvenu (1734-35; The Fortunate Peasent) is the story of a handsome, opportunistic young peasant who uses his attractiveness to older women to advance in the world. Both works concern struggles to arrive in society and reflect the author's rejection of authority and religious orthodoxy in favor of simple morality and naturalness. His attitude won him the whole-hearted admiration of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Though Marivaux was elected to the Académie Française in 1743 and became its director in 1759, he was not fully appreciated during his lifetime. In his final years, having outlived his creativity, he was saved from loneliness by his longtime companion Mlle de St. Jean. He died quite impoverished and remained without real fame until his work was reappraised by the critic Saint-Beuve in the 19th century, Marivaux has since been regarded as an important link between the Age of Reason and the Age of Romanticism. "Encyclopaedia Britannica ", "Micropaedia", 1973-74, Vol. 6