Antoine Bret

Antoine Bret (9 July 1717, Dijon – 25 February 1792, Paris aged 74) was an 18th-century French writer and playwright.

He practiced multiple genres and composed light poetry, comedies, novels, memoirs, parodic, and licentious tales. He wrote in a very clear style with new ideas everyday, but critics felt his work was clever rather than deep. This gave him a decent reputation, though he was never considered a great writer.

He was a person who knew a lot about theater and drama. He wrote several plays, but many critics noticed that his works did not have a lot of energy or comedy.

We owe him an edition of the Oeuvres by Molière, whose comments were appreciated. La Belle Alsacienne, ou Telle mère telle fille, a libertine novel first published in 1745 under the title La Belle Allemande, ou les Galanteries de Thérèse, which tells the story of a girl walking in the footsteps of her mother and letting her drive by in the ways of gallantry, was assigned to him as well as to Claude Villaret.

Antoine Bret was a member of the Académie de Stanislas in Nancy and Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon. During several years, he contributed the Gazette de France and Journal encyclopédique and was also royal censor for operas.

Publications 1743: Cythéride, histoire galante traduite du grec 1745: La Belle Allemande, ou les Galanteries de Thérèse, also known under the title La Belle Alsacienne, ou Telle mère telle fille and also attributed to Claude Villaret, Text online 1746: Lycoris, ou la Courtisane grecque 1749: Le *****, histoire bavarde, Text online 1751: Memoires sur la vie de mademoiselle de Lenclos, Text online 1765: Essai de contes moraux et dramatiques 1770: Essai d'une Poétique à la mode. Theatre 1744: Le Déguisement pastoral, one-act opéra comique, Paris, Théâtre de la foire Saint-Laurent, 27 July 1744: Le Quartier d'hiver, comedy in 1 act and in verse, with Claude Villaret and Claude Godard d'Aucour, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 4 December 1747: L'École amoureuse, one-act comedy, in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 11 September 1747: Le Concert, comedy in 1 act and in prose, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 16 November 1750: La Double Extravagance, comedy in 3 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 27 July 1753: Le Parnasse moderne, one-act opéra comique, Paris, Théâtre de la foire Saint-Germain, 3 February 1753: Le Calendrier des vieillards, one-act opéra comique, Paris, Théâtre de la foire Saint-Germain, 7 April 1755: Le Jaloux, comedy in 3 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 15 May 1758: L'Orpheline, ou le Faux généreux, comedy in 3 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 18 January 1763: Le Protecteur bourgeois, ou la Confiance trahie, comedy in five acts and in verse, 13 October, Text online 1764: L'Épreuve indiscrète, two-act comedy in verse, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 30 January 1765: Le Mariage par dépit, three-act comedy in prose, Paris, Théâtre-Français, 13 June 1778: Les Deux Julies, ou le Père crédule, three-act comédie-farce in free verse, imitated from the Bacchides by Plautus 1785: L'Hôtellerie, ou le Faux Ami, drama in 5 acts and in verse, Paris, Théâtre de l'Odéon, 30 September undated: La Maison, comedy in two acts and in verse undated: L'Humeur à l'épreuve, comedy in one act and in prose undated: Les Lettres anonymes, comedy in four acts and in verse. Collected works 1772: Œuvres de M. Bret, Text online : 1. Fables orientales et poésies diverses 2. Le Protecteur bourgeois 3. Réflexions sur la littérature 1789: Œuvres de M. Bret, 2 vol., Text online : 1. L'École amoureuse. La Double Extravagance. Le Jaloux. L'Humeur à l'épreuve. Le Faux Généreux 2. La Maison. Le Protecteur bourgeois. Les Lettres anonymes. Les Deux Julies Édition de Molière 1778: Œuvres complètes de Molière, avec des remarques grammaticales, des avertissements et des observations sur chaque pièce, 6 vol., 1773; 8 vol.