Description
A new edition of François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld‘s classic Maxims and Reflections — an English translation of his French Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales — a collection of his sayings and insights, described by some critics as “one of the most deeply felt, most intensely lived texts in French literature”, with his “experience, his likes and dislikes, sufferings and petty spites … crystallized into absolute truths.”
This edition is excerpted from an edition originally published in 1871 by J.W. Willis-Bund and J. Hain Friswell, which in addition to translating the 504 maxims generally included in early editions of La Rochefoucauld’s
Maximes supplements them with additional maxims drawn from earlier, later suppressed editions, and from his Letters and other writings. This edition focuses on La Rochefoucauld’s own words and omits the academic annotations added by Willis-Bund and Friswell, which many casual modern readers would find distracting. Francois VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (1613-1680) was a French moralist and author, best known for his maxims and memoirs, his work a quintessential example of the French literary “classicism” movement. His maxims focus on the merciless nature of human conduct, reflecting a cynical worldview towards friendship, love, loyalty, and human nature. Le Rochefoucauld was also an important political player in the French court of his day, though he is best remembered for his prolific literary output, having a profound influence on generations of writers and philosophers, including Nietzsche. John William Willis-Bund (1843-1928) was a British lawyer, legal writer and professor of constitutional law and history at King’s College London, who wrote and edited volumes on a wide-range of subjects, including La Rochefoucauld’s Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims in 1871. James Hain (1825-1878) was an English essayist and novelist, and translator, who in addition to publishing many collections of poetry and fiction of his own was prolific translator of Latin and French works, including La Rochefoucauld’s Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims in 1871.
