Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux is read about 212 times a day, in 55 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 22 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 397 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He took a scalpel to French verse in the 1600s and cut away everything ornamental, making poetry lean the way Pascal had made prose sharp.
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Photos 8
Nicolas Boileau
"Мистецтво поетичне"
Allegorisch portret van Nicolas Boileau, RP-P-1910-5883
Crosne - 3, rue Boileau
G. Bruno - Le Tour de la France par deux enfants p298_Medal%2C_1817_(CH_18154169).jpg?width=1200)
Galerie métallique des grands hommes français (Great Men of France) Medal, 1817 (CH 18154169)
Hameau Boileau, bas-relief, Paris 16e
Ingres - Etude pour la figure de Boileau, RF 29523, RectoIn their own words 1
, Let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.
In their orbit 2
About this person
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux was born on 1 November 1636, and spent his career as a poet and critic with one overriding mission: reform. French poetry at the time leaned baroque and heavy; Boileau, drawing hard on Horace, stripped it back to clarity and discipline. His work ran parallel to Blaise Pascal's overhaul of prose - two men, same generation, both wielding economy as a weapon. He became the arbiter of classical French taste, the voice that said less could mean more. He died on 13 March 1711, leaving French letters leaner than he found them.
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