Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de [key], 1688–1763, French dramatist and novelist. He enjoyed popularity for a time with his numerous comedies, including Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard (1730, tr. Love in Livery) and Le Legs (1736, tr. The Legacy, 1915), which analyze the sentiments and complications of love in a graceful, though often precious, style. The term marivaudage was thenceforth applied to his brand of artificiality. He also wrote two unfinished novels of middle-class life, La Vie de Marianne (1731–41) and Le Paysan parvenu (1735–36), which are important early examples of the genre.
See G. Poe, The Rococo and Eighteenth-Century Theater (1987); R. C. Rosbottom, Marivaux's Novels (1975).
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