Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

In May 1777, Comte de Mirabeau, 18th century French aristocrat was imprisoned at Vincennes. There he met Marquis de Sade, both of them imprisoned by lettre de cachet, both libertines; however the two disliked each other intensely. They both wrote prolifically in prison, both suffered from graphomania, Mirabeau would write letters to Sophie, Le libertin de qualité and the Erotika Biblion; Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and insane asylums for about 32 years (out of a total of 74) of his life; much of his writing, starting with his debut Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man was done during his imprisonment.

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Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau (March 9, 1749 – April 2, 1791) was a French writer, popular orator and statesman. During the French Revolution, he was a moderate, favoring a constitutional monarchy built on the model of Great Britain. He unsuccessfully conducted secret negotiations with the French monarchy in an effort to reconcile it with the Revolution.

Writing

His earliest extant work was the Essai sur le despotisme.

When he met Marie Thérèse de Monnier, his "Sophie", the two fell in love, although she was engaged to his colonel. He escaped to Switzerland, where Sophie joined him; they then went to the Rotterdam, where he lived by hack work; meanwhile Mirabeau had been condemned to death at Pontarlier for seduction and abduction, and in May 1777 he was seized by the French police, and imprisoned by a lettre de cachet in the castle of Vincennes.

The early part of his confinement is marked by the letters to Sophie, the Erotica biblion and Ma conversion.

In prison of Vincennes, he met the Marquis de Sade, who was also writing erotic works; however the two disliked each other intensely. Later during his confinement, he wrote Des Lettres de Cachet et des prisons d'état, published after his liberation (1782). It exhibits an accurate knowledge of French constitutional history skillfully applied in an attempt to show that the system of lettres de cachet was not only philosophically unjust but also constitutionally illegal.

List of works

• Le rideau levé ou l'éducation de Laure
• Ma conversion ou Le libertin de qualité
• Erotika Biblion
• Le chien après les moines
• Hic et Hec
• Le degré des âges du plaisir
• Lettres à Sophie
• Des Lettres de Cachet et des prisons d'état
• Essai sur le despotisme