Jean-Francois Marmontel (1723-99), French man of letters. Marmontel, the son of a tailor, was a follower and friend of Voltaire. He became one of the leading figures of the French literary establishment, named Secrétaire Perpétuel of the Academie Française in 1783, and was a defender of Enlightenment values. Marmontel began his career writing articles for Encyclopédie and became editor of the Mercure de France in 1758. He is now regarded as an influential literary theorist whose éléments de Littérature (1787) anticipates the ideas of Baudelaire. His Mémoires are a vital record of the artistic salons of the period. Marmontel's philosophy of human virtue as celebrated in Contes Moraux (1755-65) and religious tolerance defended in Bélisaire (1767) are central to continuing interest in his work. Ruskin's view of Marmontel was one of high critical appreciation.