對於許多人文主義作家而言，「自我」是審視的中心，瞭解自我有助於瞭解他人，因此他們喜用傳記體，透過傳記主角的眼光去認識世界，也希望藉著主角的經驗教育讀者。在法國十八世紀，這類以第一人稱敘述的傳記體小說盛行，主角以第一人稱現身說法述說親身經歷，除營造「似真」氣氛、拉近作者和讀者間的距離外，還欲以此達到寓教於樂之目的。馬里伏的作品《瑪莉安的一生》和《飛黃騰達的鄉巴佬》便是此類小說的典型代表。馬里伏特意以無親無靠的孤女瑪莉安和出身卑微的鄉下人賈各伯在象徵著權勢與腐敗、挑戰與誘惑的巴黎之奮鬥，來闡明「所有的靈魂均具有同等的價值」之道理。

To many humanist writers, “self” is the center of reflection, and understanding oneself is conducive to the understanding of others. Therefore they like to write biographies whereby to understand the world through the biographee’s eyes and hopefully educate the readers through the hero’s or the heroine’s experience. In France, such biographies in first-person narrative were popular in the eighteenth century. The fact that the hero or heroine described his or her personal experience in first-person narrative could create the mood of verisimilitude, shorten the distance between the author and the readers and, most importantly, serve the purpose of teaching through amusement. Marivaux’s novels, La Vie de Marianne and Le Paysan parvenu, were typical of such novels. Marrianne was a helpless orphan, and Jacob was a humble peasant. Showing how they struggled in Paris, the symbol of power, corruption, challenge and temptation, Marivaux demonstrated the meaning of “all souls are equal in value.”