Scarron, Paul 1610-60
French writer

Born in Paris, he became an abb�, and in about 1634 paid an extended visit to Italy. In 1638 he began to suffer from an illness which ultimately left him paralysed. He obtained a prebend in Mans (1643), but giving up all hope of remedy, returned to Paris in 1646 to write for a living. His metrical comedy, Jodelet, ou le ma�tre valet (1645, 'Jodelet; or, the Master-Butler'), was a great success, and he followed it with a number of similar works, including the popular L'H�ritier ridicule (1653, 'The Ridiculous Heir'). An intensely bitter satire directed at Cardinal Mazarin, which he wrote for the Fronde, probably lost him his pensions. The burlesque predominates in most of his writing, but it is as the creator of the realistic novel that he is remembered. Le Roman comique (1651-57, Eng trans The Comical Romance, 1665) was a reaction against the euphuistic and interminable novels of Madeleine de Scud�ry and Honor� d'Urf�, and the work of Alain Lesage, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett owes much to him. In 1652 he married Fran�oise d'Aubign� (later Madame de Maintenon), who brought a hitherto unknown decorum into his household and writings.

Bibliography: E Magne, Scarron et son milieu (1923)