Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne

Nicolas Edme Restif, known as Restif de La Bretonne, was born in 1734 in Sacy, in Burgundy, the son of a well-off ploughman. A pupil at Bicêtre, he entered an apprenticeship in 1751 with a printer in Auxerre, then worked in Parisian print shops. He often composed his texts directly in type, without a manuscript, and published nearly two hundred volumes, including a chronicle of his nocturnal walks through Paris. The collapse of the assignats ruined him during the Revolution, and he died in Paris in 1806.

In the catalogue 1

• NovelThe Perverted PeasantLe Paysan pervertiNicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne · 1776LiteraturePublic domain