Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, called Bussy-Rabutin, is one of the most literaryly gifted, witty, mocking and sarcastic authors of the 17th century. Some episodes of the biography of this cousin of the famous Madame de Sevigne themselves seem to be taken from an adventure novel. For his work “The Love Story of the Gauls” - a satirical love chronicle of the French court circulated in manuscripts and underground publications during the early reign of King Louis XIV - he was simultaneously awarded the nickname “French Petronius”, and ended up in the Bastille for more than a year, and was imprisoned literally a few months after the widely famous writer was accepted into the French Academy (this happened in March 1665). The essay “The Love Story of the Gauls,” written for the entertainment of Bussy’s beloved, the Marquise de Monglas, is a vivid example of what was popular in the 17th-18th centuries. genre - “novel with a key” (roman a clef). It contains lively, strikingly similar portraits of the writer’s contemporaries: King Louis XIV, the Grand Condé, the Grand Mademoiselle, the Duke de La Rochefoucauld (author of “Maxim”), cardinals de Retz and Mazarin, Marshal de Turenne, the duchesses de Chevreuse and de Longueville, the Marquis de Sevigne, the poet Benserade and many others. The courtiers and regulars of the Parisian salons of that time did not even need explanations (“the key” placed in printed publications) which of the characters named with fictitious names was portraying whom: thanks to the author’s skill, everyone recognized the real faces behind the satirical, not at all flattering masks. The author was awarded more than once laudatory reviews from those who appreciated the grace and purity of style, as well as wit, in his writings, in particular the writers La Bruyère and Saint-Evremond. And the Jesuits, who recognized Bussy’s undoubted literary talent, even expressed a desire for him to write critical comments on Pascal’s “Letters to a Provincial.” The work “The Love Story of the Gauls,” which was reprinted many times, served as the basis for countless apocryphal imitations and continuations, both in prose, and in verse, had an undeniable influence on the further development of the realistic novel. In addition to “The Love Story of the Gauls,” the book includes two more works by Bussy-Rabutin: “Map of the Land of Frivolity” and “Maxims of Love,” as well as other texts. The publication is equipped with an article about life and work of Bussy, notes, “key” (name index), genealogical table, illustrations.