Courier, Paul Louis

Courier, Paul Louis

(Paul Louis Courier de Méré) (pōl lwē ko͞oryā` də mārā`), 1772–1825, French political writer and classical scholar. His translation (1810) of the Greek text of Daphnis and Chloë is considered excellent. After the Bourbon restoration, which he opposed, he devoted himself to writing trenchant political pamphlets, the best known of which are Simple Discours (1821), for which he was jailed, and Le Pamphlet des pamphlets (1824), remarkable for its stylistic brilliance. His memoirs and letters (1828) have the same original charm that make his literary works memorable. He was murdered, presumably by one of his servants.