Dictionary.net

A French writer of literary extravaganzas (1619-55); born at Paris. He was a famous duelist, and fought more than a thousand single combats, most of them provoked by comments on his enormously overgrown nose. In style and composition he is without taste or judgment; but he is always sprightly and fanciful, often witty and ingenious. Boileau noted his "daring burlesque". He wrote: "Letters", amorous or satirical; a "Comic History of the States and Empire of the Moon", and another "Of the Sun", both full of metaphysical and satirical passages in the vein later made famous by Swift, to whom they are thought to have suggested "Gulliver". His one tragedy, "Agrippina", evinces great dramatic power; he wrote also a clever comedy, "The Pedant Laughing-Stock".