Tomb of Beaumarchais at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Jan. 24, 1732 -May 18, 1799, Paris, was a fascinating and brilliant man. He’s best remembered today as the author of the irreverent comedies Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, which were rendered into operas by Rossini and Mozart, respectively. He also published the first complete collection of works by Voltaire, the great Enlightenment writer and philosopher.

To learn more about Beaumarchais and his revolutionary life and ideas, see his entry in Encyclopædia Britannica, in TheatreHistory.com, and in Wikipedia.

I took this photograph while in Paris in August 2015 following the life and ideas of Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Paine at the time of the French Revolution; to read more about these great thinkers, click here.

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