Château de Versailles and its gardens

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Ian H. Thompson (University of Newcastle upon Tyne)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.04: French Writing and Culture: Eighteenth-Century and the Enlightenment, 1700-1800.
Vol. editors: Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Jenny Mander (University of Cambridge), Síofra Pierse (University College Dublin), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Landscape and Gardens

Dates

Date of occurrence 1661-1789

Places

France (Location)

The Chatâteau de Versailles, painted Pierre Patel (1668)

Louis XIV first visited Versailles at the age of twelve on a hunting expedition. His father, Louis XIII, had purchased the seignory in 1632 and asked his architect Philibert Le Roy to build him a modest lodge. Louis XIV would in time become so attached to this cheerful brick-and-stone house that he could not bring himself to demolish it, even when his own ambitious plans for the site called for a much larger building.

Louis XIV's lifelong love affair with hunting goes some way towards explaining the attraction which Versailles held for him, b…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2367 words

Citation: Thompson, Ian H.. "Château de Versailles and its gardens". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 January 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1691, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Château de Versailles and its gardens

Domains

Dates

Places

Save this article

Leave Feedback