Although a well-known literary figure in his day, Antoine Furetière is more often remembered as a lexicographer than as a writer. The burlesque poetry, satires, and occasional pieces he wrote in his youth have long since ceased to be read; his fables, published in 1671, only a few years after Jean de La Fontaine's, suffered in comparison then as they do now; and his single novel, while attracting sporadic critical interest in France since the mid nineteenth century, has not been translated into English in more than three hundred years. His dictionary, on the other hand, was instantly recognized as a major accomplishment and is still the primary reference for scholars wishing to understand the linguistic usage of the seventeenth century. In an age in which politesse (politeness) was the rule, in language as elsewhere in society, Furetière's Dictionaire universel (1690; spelled Dictionnaire in modern editions...