Maurice Aristide Chapelan, Man of Three Parts

This work presents Maurice Chapelan in three distinct ways: firstly, as a poet, biographer, literary critic and writer of aphorisms; secondly, as a famous newspaper grammarian; and, thirdly, as the author of romans galants, inspired by his youthful study of his paternal grandfather’s rich library of eighteenth-century literature.

Although Chapelan died in 1992, many of his books are still in print and he is remembered with affection, admiration and gratitude, especially by those who used to relish his witty Divertissements grammaticaux (formerly Usage et grammaire) every week in Le Figaro littéraire, where he had become resident chroniqueur du langage in 1961.

Maurice Aristide Chapelan may well have been three distinct writers, signing himself in fun as MAC, le Diable—comme Dieu en trois personnes, but these three persons had a well-defined unifying thread running through their literary output: a beauty, a simplicity and an elegance of style, revealing a love of the French language and more than a hint of libertinage.