Courier, Paul Louis (1772–1825)

French writer. He became the leading pamphleteer in France, noted for his irony. The most acclaimed of his pamphlets, in which he describes the grievances of the peasantry in the face of oppression by the government and the clergy, include Pétition aux deux chambres/Petition to the Two Chambers (1816) and Pétition pour les villageois qu'on empêche de danser/Petition for the Villagers who are Forbidden to Dance (1820).

Among his other works are Lettres de France et d'Italie/Letters from France and Italy, written 1787–1812, in which he expressed his opposition to the empire and Pamphlet des pamphlets/The Pamphlet of Pamphlets (1824). He signed his pamphlets in the name of Paul-Louis, Vigneron (vine grower). He was murdered by a farm labourer whom he had formerly employed.