Élie Catherine Fréron

[1] Thus Fréron, in recruiting young writers to counter the literary establishment became central to the movement now called the Counter-Enlightenment.

He made such rapid academic progress that he was appointed professor at the college of Louis-le-Grand before he turned twenty.

He became a contributor to the Observations sur les écrits modernes of the abbé Pierre Desfontaines.

It was suppressed in 1749, but he immediately replaced it by Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps, which, with the exception of a short suspension in 1752, on account of an attack on the character of Voltaire, was continued till 1754, when it was succeeded by the more ambitious Année littéraire.

[2] Fréron is also mentioned in Voltaire's famous novel Candide, in reference to a rude critic the title character meets at a theater.