Jean Baptiste Legouve

Jean-Baptiste Legouvé (1764–1812) was a French poet and playwright active during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He wrote for the stage and is associated with French tragic drama. Among his best-known works is the tragedy *La Mort d’Abel* (“The Death of Abel”), which helped establish his reputation in his lifetime. Legouvé belonged to a literary family: he was the father of Ernest Legouvé, who later became a prominent writer and dramatist in his own right. Jean-Baptiste Legouvé’s career reflects the period’s continuing interest in classical themes and moral subjects, shaped by the cultural upheavals of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.