belles-lettres

There was a time when both literature and the study of literature came under the delightful rubric belles lettres—beautiful letters.

The type of works considered, Nobel’s will says, should be ”not only belles lettres but other writings which, by virtue of their form and style possess literary value.”

He was the first writer to introduce a modern and European tone into belles lettres, and the first to refresh the sources of native thought from the springs of antique and Renaissance poetry.

He finished his collegiate studies honorably, having distinguished himself chiefly in rhetoric and belles lettres.

In the year 1767 his writings in belles lettres were issued in six volumes, edited by J. C. B�kman, his half-brother.