Nicolas Boileau

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) was a French poet and literary critic associated with the classical ideals of 17th-century France. He first gained prominence through his sharp, moralizing satires, which targeted literary pretension and social vice with wit and disciplined verse. Boileau became an influential arbiter of taste, championing clarity, reason, and adherence to established forms. His most famous critical work, *L’Art poétique* (1674), set out rules and principles that helped codify French classical poetics and shaped generations of writers. He was elected to the Académie française in 1684 and served as historiographer to Louis XIV.