Fénelon

Fénelon 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.

Ryan Patrick Hanley is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. Prior to joining the faculty at Boston College, he was the Mellon Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, and held visiting appointments or fellowships at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. He is the author of several studies on Enlightenment political philosophy, including Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue (2009) and Love's Enlightenment: Rethinking Charity in Modernity (2017).

- 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. Correspondence
- 1. 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 Cologne
- VI. Examination of Conscience on the Duties of Kingship
- VII. Political Memoranda
- 1. 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"