Montesquieu

"This is where the difficulties begin: for as they get closer to Montesquieu, biographers feel somehow obliged to give substance to the persons with whom they must deal, even when they know nothing, or not much, about them. Each of them repeats his predecessor and enhances the whole, to the point where it is sometimes difficult to locate the first source of most of the traits attributed to Montesquieu's parents and even to Montesquieu himself. In this proliferation of amiable approximations and exaggerations, themselves often based on the aristocratic pride that "forgets" certain details the better to stress everything that serves the family honor, they have to clear themselves a path."--