The New International Encyclopædia/Tallemant des Réaux, Gédéon

TALLEMANT DES RÉAUX, tȧl′mäN′ dā̇ rā̇′ō̇′, Gédéon (1619-92). A French writer, born at La Rochelle, and connected through his mother with the famous Rambouillet family. He took his degrees in law, but refused to fulfill his father's wish that he should go into the magistracy. He employed his leisure in literary work, wrote verses in the taste of the time, and began a tragedy of Œdipe. But he is chiefly remembered by his Historiettes, a series of biographical, anecdotal, and character sketches of contemporary personages. Light, witty, somewhat cynical, and usually less restrained than modern taste demands, they are an invaluable document of the period, and particularly of the Hotel de Rambouillet. They have been collected by Monmerqué, Levavasseur (1840), and Techener (1860). Tallement also began the Mémoires de la Régence d'Anne d'Austriche, intended to throw light upon the administration of Cardinal Mazarin. These, however, have not come down to us.