Introduction
Chronology
Further Reading
Translator's Note
Acknowledgments
I. Fables (selections)1. The Bee and the Fly
2. The Pigeon Punished for Its Restlessness
3. The Bees
4. The Adventures of Aristonoüs
5. Life of Plato
II. Dialogues of the Dead (selections)1. Achilles and Homer
2. Confucius and Socrates
3. Solon and Justinian
4. Socrates and Alcibiades (1)
5. Socrates and Alcibiades (2)
6. Alexander and Aristotle
7. Coriolanus and Camillus
8. Caesar and Cato
9. Louis XI and Cardinal Balue
10. Louis XI and Louis XII
11. Henry VII and Henry VIII
12. Henry III and Henry IV
13. Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin
III. Telemachus (selections)1. Egypt
2. Tyre
3. Crete
4. Bétique
5. Manduria
6. Salente I
7. Salente II
IV. Correspondence1. Letter to Louis XIV
2. Letter to the Marquis de Louville
3. Letter to the Duke of Burgundy
V. Discourse Delivered at the Consecration of the Elector of CologneVI. Examination of Conscience on the Duties of KingshipVII. Political Memoranda1. Memorandum on the deplorable situation of France
2. Plans of Government (Tables de Chaulnes)
3. Measures to take after the death of the Duke of Burgundy
VIII. "On Pure Love"
Fenelon is arguably one of the most neglected major philosophers of early modernity. His political masterwork was the most-read book in eighteenth-century France after the Bible, and yet today even specialists rarely engage his work directly. This problem is particularly acute in the Anglophone world, where only a small fraction of Fénelon's vast and influential corpus has appeared in modern English translation.
This collection of new translations of Fénelon's moral and political writings renders one of the leading voices of early modern philosophy accessible to English-language audiences. Reflecting the impressive breadth of Fenelon's thought, the volume includes work on topics ranging from education to literature to religion and statecraft. In the realm of political philosophy and ethics, Fénelon was an uncompromising critic of Louis XIV and absolutism, committed to reforming France's social, political and economic institutions. In the Enlightenment, he came to be celebrated as a pioneering theorist of education and rhetoric, a prescient student of economics and international relations, and a key voice in the philosophical debates among the heirs of Descartes - not to mention his fame as one of the seventeenth-century's most preeminent theologians and spiritualists and masters of French prose. With an extensive introduction to Fénelon's life and work, this volume is a critical resource for students and scholars of French history, political philosophy, economics, education, literature, and religion.