Évariste de Parny

De Parny was born in Saint-Paul on the Isle of Bourbon (now Réunion); he came from an aristocratic family from the region of Berry, which had settled on the island in 1698.

He studied theology for six months at the collège Saint-Firmin in Paris, but decided finally instead on a military career, explaining that he was not religious enough to become a monk, and that he was attracted to Christianity mainly by the poetic imagery of the Bible.

He was not at all happy in India, but he gathered a part of the material for his Chansons Madécasses (Eng: Songs of Madagascar), one of the first prose poems written in the French language.

When the French Revolution broke out, Parny, who did not receive any pension from the King and was not particularly interested in politics, played no part.

He was forced to take a position in the offices of the Ministry of the Interior for thirteen months, and then worked in the Administration of the Theater and the Arts.

Parny became known for his Poésies érotiques (1778) a collection of love poems which brought a breath of fresh air to the formal academic poetry of the 18th century.

In 1796 he published La Guerre des Dieux (Eng: The War of the Gods), a poem in the style of Voltaire's Pucelle, directed against the Church.

In 1805 he produced an extraordinary allegorical poem attacking George III, his family and his subjects, under the eccentric title of "Goddam!