Antoine Bret

Antoine Bret (9 July 1717, Dijon – 25 February 1792, Paris aged 74) was an 18th-century French writer and playwright.

A prolific writer, he practiced almost all genres. He composed light poetry, comedies, novels, memoirs, parodic and licentious tales. A fairly pure style, ease of invention, reviews more ingenious than deep made him a reputation without rising above the fair. A good connoisseur of drama, he wrote plays sinning nevertheless by lack verve and comic force.

We owe him an edition of the Oeuvres by Molière, whose comments were appreciated. La Belle Alsacienne, ou Telle mère telle fille, a libertine novel first published in 1745 under the title La Belle Allemande, ou les Galanteries de Thérèse, which tells the story of a girl walking in the footsteps of her mother and letting her drive by in the ways of gallantry, was assigned to him as well as to Claude Villaret.

Antoine Bret was a member of the Académie de Stanislas in Nancy and Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon. During several years, he contributed the Gazette de France and Journal encyclopédique and was also royal censor for operas.