Henri Joseph Du Laurens (sometimes Laurens or Dulaurens, original name Henri Joseph Laurent, 1719–1793 or 1797) was a French unfrocked Trinitarian friar, satirical poet and novelist,[1] born at Douai, the son of the regimental surgeon Jean Joseph Laurent and his wife Marie Josephe Menon.[2] He was author of such libertine works as Le compère Matthieu,[3] Imirce, ou la fille de la nature and L'Arrétin moderne. He may also have written Candide, Part II. He died at Mariembourg in the French First Republic, now in Belgium.[4]