18th-century French literature classic example is "Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane" by Alain-René Lesage (1715). The novel of the imagination pictured life centuries in the future; "L'An 2440, rêve s'il en fut jamais" (The year 2440 - dream of all dreams) by Mercier (1771); or stories of fantasy "le Diable amoureux" (The Devil in Love) of Jacques Cazotte (1772). The libertine, or erotic novel, featured eroticism, seduction, manipulation, and social intrigue. Classic examples are "Les Liaisons dangereuses" ("Dangerous Liaisons") by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782); ("Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu" ("Justine or the misfortunes of virtue") by Donatien Alphonse François
Paris in the 18th century the "Nouvelles Eccléstiastiques", first printed in 1728, which circulated the ideas of the Jansenists, a sect denounced by the church. Through the journals, the ideas and discoveries made in Paris were circulated around France and across Europe. In the beginning of the 18th century Paris had a very rudimentary postal service, which had been established in 1644 to carry letters by horseback couriers to other cities in France or abroad, but there was no postal service within the city itself; Parisians had to send a domestic or deliver the letter themselves. In 1758, a private company, called the "Petite Poste",