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Charles Pinot Duclos' biography dramatizes the evolution from the rigid separation of the aristocratic and plebeian classes in the seventeenth century to the gradual social democratization in the eighteenth. This son of a Brittany merchant from the little village of Dinan rose to social prominence in the aristocratic salon circles of Paris and to literary pre eminence, as attest contemporary memoirs, the success of his novels, histories and moral writings as well as his official positions - a member of two academies, Royal Historiographer, Perpetual Secretary of the French Academy -a feat nearly impossible in the stratified society of seventeenth century France. Moreover, not only was Duclos...
Smith argues that the attempt to redefine and restore French nobility brought forth competing visions of patriotism with correlating models of the social and political order. Although the terms of public debate have changed, the same basic challenge continues to animate contemporary politics.