a French dramatist and writer. Mercier began his literary career by writing heroic epistles. He early came to the conclusion that Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux and Jean Racine had ruined the French language and that the true poet wrote in prose. He wrote plays, pamphlets, and novels and published prodigiously. Mercier often recycled passages from one work to another and expanded on essays he had already written. Mercier's keen observations on his surroundings and the journalistic feel of his writing meant that his work remained riveting despite the nature of its composition.
