Ponson du Terrail, Pierre-Alexis, vicomte de (1829-71). French author of an endless number of romans -feuilletons, rivalling Féval in the Second Empire. His novels appeared in a vast range of newspapers and journals. His great celebrity rested principally on the huge popular success of the Rocambole series of novels, which were published from the late 1850s onwards; from the name of the central character is derived the adjective rocambolesque, meaning far-fetched or fantastic.

[Brian Rigby]

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.