Jonathan Swift first used the phrase “belles lettres” in Tatler 230 (1710): “The Traders in History and Politics, and the Belles Lettres.”
In French the term means “beautiful letters, fine writing.”
Swift added the pejorative connotation of light or trivial literature.
Related Posts
-
Why did Robert Browning (1812-89) and Elizabeth Barrett (1806-61) have to marry secretly? Robert Browning (1812-89) and Elizabeth Barrett (1806-61) had to marry secretly because Barrett's father refused to let his children marry, even though Elizabeth was forty at the time. The secret wedding took place…
-
What was the nationality of Hermann Hesse? The German-born author of Siddhartha (1922) and Steppenwolf (1927) Hermann Hesse became a Swiss citizen at the outbreak of World War I. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.
-
Which tragedy of Euripides was produced first: Iphigenia in Aulis or Iphigenia in Tauris? Tauris came first, about 414-412 B.C.; Aulis followed about 405 B.C. In terms of the storyline, however, the order is reversed. Aulis tells of Agamemnon's decision to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in order…
-
How long has The Fantasticks been running? The musical The Fantasticks by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt has been running for over thirty years, since May 1960.
-
When was English first spoken in England? English was not spoken in England until 449, when three Germanic tribes from Denmark, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, invaded Britain. The Angles, who settled along the east coast of north and central…
-
At whom was Alexander Pope’s poem The Dunciad (1728) aimed? Published in several versions from 1728 to 1743, the mock-epic poem The Dunciad satirized bad writing and attacked critics of Pope's poetry. In the final version, the king of the Dunces is Colley…