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 Robespierre and a member of the radical Jacobin club, became the unofficial minister of propaganda of the Revolution. He created a series of paintings associating the French Revolution with the virtues of the ancient Rome, and designing costumes and pageants for the Revolutionary government. After the fall of Robespierre, he was imprisoned, freed, and at the beginning of the 19th century was painting portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte. Of the great French writers of the 18th century, the two most famous, Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, spent most of their careers far from Paris, either in exile or under strict censorship. Early