Collected Maxims and Other Reflections by La Rochefoucauld

Collected Maxims and Other Reflections by La Rochefoucauld

Translated by E.H. Blackmore, Translated by A.M. Blackmore, and Translated by Francine Giguère

• This bilingual edition provides the fullest collection of La Rochefoucauld's writings ever published in English,including all the maxims and the first complete translation of the Miscellaneous Reflections
• La Rochefoucauld's maxims are famous, and famously witty: cynical and penetrating, they encapsulate uncomfortable and everlasting truths about the human condition
• Includes a new critical edition of the French text, and is the first to take into account the research of the last 30 years
• Excellent introduction surveys La Rochefoucauld's life, the genesis of his work, its form and content, and its influence
• Includes comprehensive explanatory notes, a table of alternative maxim numbers, and an extensive and invaluable index of topics

'Our virtues are, most often, only vices in disguise.'

Deceptively brief and insidiously easy to read, La Rochefoucauld's shrewd, unflattering analyses of human behaviour have influenced writers, thinkers, and public figures as various as Voltaire, Proust, de Gaulle, Nietzsche, and Conan Doyle. The author gave himself the following advice: 'The reader's best policy is to assume that none of these maxims is directed at him, and that he is the sole exception...After that, I guarantee that he will be the first to subscribe to them.'

This is the fullest collection of La Rochefoucauld's writings ever published in English, and includes the first complete translation of the Réflexions diverses (Miscellaneous Reflections). A table of alternative maxim numbers and an index of topics help the reader to locate any maxim quickly and to appreciate the full range of La Rochefoucauld's thought on any of his favourite themes, such as self-love, vice and virtue, love and jealousy, friendship and self-interest, passion and pride.

Collected Maxims and Other Reflections by La Rochefoucauld - Reviews

"This superb publication of La Rouchefoucauld's seminal 'Maxims' combines the erudition and comprehensiveness of a scholarly edition with the welcoming accessibility of a first-class textbook." - Kevin De Ornellas, University of Ulster

Collected Maxims and Other Reflections by La Rochefoucauld - Translators

Translated by E.H. Blackmore, Freelance writer and translator, Translated by A.M. Blackmore, Freelance writer and translator, and Translated by Francine Giguère, Freelance writer and translator

Collected Maxims as English translation with Parallel French Text.