Claude Lesage, the father of the novelist, held the united positions of advocate, notary and registrar of the royal court in Rhuys.

Shortly afterwards he found a valuable patron and adviser in the Abbé de Lyonne, who bestowed on him an annuity of 600 livres, and recommended him to exchange the classics for Spanish literature, of which he was himself a student and collector.

[1] Spanish literature was once very popular in France when the queens of the house of Austria sat upon the throne, but had become neglected by Lesage's time.

In 1707, his farce, Crispin rival de son maître, was well received, and Le Diable boiteux (with a frontispiece by Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels) was published and ran to several editions.

[1] Around this time his publisher Claude Barbin also asked Lesage to rework François Pétis de la Croix's translation of Turkish tales Les mille et un jours (1710–12) into marketable French, and included two of these stories at the end of the eighth volume of Antoine Galland's Les mille et une nuits (1709).

[2] Some years passed before he again attempted romance writing, and then the first two parts of Gil Blas de Santillane were published in 1715, without the popularity of Le Diable boiteux.

Besides all this, Lesage was also the author of La Valise trouvée, a collection of imaginary letters, and of some minor pieces including Une journée des Parques.

Probably out of deference to his father, the son took the name Montménil, and by the merit of his talents and private character, soon entered the upper society of Paris.

However, his conversation was so delightful that when he ventured into the world and frequented his favourite coffee house in Rue St. Jacques in Paris, guests would gather around him, climbing onto tables and chairs, to hear his famous words of wit and wisdom.

The hour appointed for the reading was noon, but the dramatist was still very interested in legal matters and was detained until 1 o'clock attending the decision of a lawsuit.

When he finally appeared at the Hôtel and attempted to apologise, the Duchess of Bouillon was so cold and haughty, observing that he had made her guests lose one hour waiting for his arrival.