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Antoine Rivarol (1753–1801)
Rivarol, Antoine (rē-vä-rōl’). A French satirist and publicist; born at Bagnols, Languedoc, 1753; died at Berlin, April 13, 1801. He was one of the most brilliant wits of the eighteenth century. His first work of importance, the discourse ‘On the Universality of the French Language,’ took the prize at the Academy of Berlin in 1784. His ‘Little Almanac of our Great Men’ (1788), a volume of satires against authors of his day, and a free translation of Dante’s ‘Inferno,’ were both particularly successful. He also wrote a ‘Dictionary of the French Language,’ and ‘Letters to the Duke of Brunswick.’