Jean de La Bruyère

Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696) was a French moralist, author of a single book. Born in Paris and trained as a lawyer, he bought a minor office at Caen and in 1684, through Bossuet, became tutor to the grandson of the Great Condé, remaining in the Condé household at Chantilly for the rest of his life. Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du grec avec les Caractères ou les moeurs de ce siècle appeared in 1688 as a modest appendix to a translation and grew through nine editions into a portrait of the court and city of Louis XIV in maxims and sketches.