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Praise of Folly
Translated by Roger Clarke
ISBN: 9781847493248
336 pages
RRP: Original price was: £8.99.£7.19Current price is: £7.19.
In addition to a sparkling modern translation of Praise of Folly, this volume also includes other works by Erasmus: Pope Julius Barred from Heaven, Epigram against Pope Julius II and a selection of his Adages. Together with the extensive annotation of the texts, these help to set Erasmus’s masterpiece in an accessible context for the modern reader.
A central text of the Renaissance, Praise of Folly is an essential part of the Western canon, without which much that has followed – in culture, theology and literature – would not exist. Deeply subversive in its time, the book, after the initial controversy it created, finally gained acceptance as theologians, philosophers and readers came to appreciate Erasmus’s lucid, playful and eloquent reasoning.
Part of Alma Classics Evergreens Series
REVIEWS
From the terrible hate storm of his age, Erasmus has salvaged this intellectual gem, his faith in humanity, and on this small burning wick Spinoza, Lessing and Voltaire – and all Europeans past and present – could light their torch.
Stefan Zweig
Praise of Folly, still a masterpiece of slyly subversive wit, was in a sense the first best-seller, read covertly under desks and sniggered over by countless trainee monks and priests.
Nicholas Lezard
The GuardianErasmus searched for reconciliation between Faith and Reason, refusing not only the dogmas of Faith, but the dogmas of Reason as well.
Carlos Fuentes
I am well aware that what I have had to say on the problem of peace is not essentially new. It is my profound conviction that the solution lies in our rejecting war for an ethical reason; namely, that war makes us guilty of the crime of inhumanity. Erasmus of Rotterdam and several others after him have already proclaimed this as the truth around which we should rally.
Albert Schweitzer in his 1952 Nobel Peace Prize lecture
