Tallefant des Réaux, GÉDÉON, the Brantôme of his century, was born at La Rochelle about 1619. At nineteen he visited Italy in company with the future Cardinal de Retz, and at an early age married his cousin Elisabeth Rambouillet, daughter of a farmer of revenues, whose ample fortune enabled him to give himself to letters and to society. About 1650 he bought for 115,000 livres the seignorial estate of Plessis-Rideau in Touraine, and was permitted to change its name to that of Des Réaux. He was still living in 1691, but was certainly dead by 1701. His famous work, the Historiettes, was written from 1657 to 1659, and is invaluable as a complete picture of the society of his time. The most finished group of these portraits in miniature is that of the famous circle of the Hôtel de Rambouillet. There were many mortifications in that stately and ceremonious age to those sprung from the bourgeoisie, and these without doubt coloured the style and tone of Tallefant. He takes a malignant pleasure in setting forth the vices of the great, but, indeed, his mordant tone is a characteristic note throughout. He shows a relish for a scandalous story, and indeed often outrages the proprieties; but it should be remembered that he wrote only for his own diversion and that of a small group of intimate friends. His short characters, as printed by Monmerqué, are 376 in number, in no case finished biographies, rather collections of illustrative anecdotes, throwing strong light from behind the scenes on the leading figures of three-quarters of a century. And still more, those portraits may generally be accepted as sound and truthful, if some allowance is made for the natural maliciousness and personal prejudices of the writer.—His brother, the Abbé Tallefant (1620-93), was a man of wit and an academician, but his Vies de Plutarque (1663) brought him little credit.—His cousin, Paul Tallefant (1642-1712), early began to scribble verses, at eighteen wrote his Voyage de l'Île d'Amour, an ingenious commentary on Mdlle. de Scudéry's famous 'Carte de Tendre,' and entered the Academy in 1666.
The Historiettes of Tallefant des Réaux were first published, from the MSS. of the author, by MM. Monmerqué, the Marquis de Châteaugiron, and Jules Taschereau (6 vols. 1834). The second and more perfect edition was by Monmerqué alone (10 vols. in 5, 1840).