Telemachus, Son of UlyssesFénelon's Telemachus (1699) is, alongside Bossuet's Politics, the most important work of political theory of the grand siècle in France. It was also the most widely read work of the time, influencing Montesquieu and Rousseau in its attempt to combine monarchism with republican virtues. Fénelon tells of the moral and political education of Telemachus, young son of Ulysses, by his tutor Mentor (the goddess Minerva in disguise). Telemachus visits every corner of the Mediterranean world and learns patience, courage, modesty and simplicity, the qualities he will need when he succeeds Ulysses as King of Ithaca. It is the story of the transformation of an egoistic young man into a model ruler, and is meant (among other things) as a commentary on the bellicosity and luxuriousness of Louis XIV. The present English edition follows closely that of Tobias Smollett published in 1776. |
Contents
Book II | 14 |
Book III | 28 |
Book IV | 43 |
Book V | 57 |
Book VI | 79 |
Book VIII | 110 |
Book IX | 124 |
Book X | 145 |
Book XII | 193 |
Book XIII | 208 |
Book XIV | 233 |
Book XV | 258 |
Book XVI | 277 |
Book XVII | 289 |
Book XVIII | 312 |
Index | 329 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles Adoam Adrastus afraid allies Antiope appeared Arcesius arms army arts Astarbé beauty blood Bossuet Calypso charms coast countenance courage Cretans Crete cruel danger Daunians dear death divine dreadful earth edited endeavored enemies Eucharis everything eyes father favor fear Fénelon flatterers glory goddess gods govern Greece Greeks grief hand happy Hazael heard heart Hegesippus Hercules Hesperia Hippias hope Idomeneus island isle Ithaca jealousy Jupiter king labor land live look machus Malebranche mankind manner Mentor Minerva Minos misfortunes mountains Narbal nations neighbors Neoptolemus Neptune Nestor never nymphs passion peace perceived Phalantus Philocles Philoctetes Phoenicians Pisistratus pleasure Political princes Protesilaus punish Pygmalion reign render replied sage Salente seemed ship siege of Troy soon speak spoke stranger suffered tears Telemachus Télémaque thee thou thought Timocrates Ulysses unhappy victory virtue whole winds wisdom wise words young youth
Popular passages
Page xvii - Telemaque, it is a fabulous narration in the form of an heroic poem like those of Homer and of Virgil, into which I have put the main instructions which are suitable for a young prince whose birth destines him to rule ... In these adventures I have put all the truths necessary to government, and all the faults that one can find in sovereign power.27 Louis XIV, for his part, saw nothing but the alleged "faults...
Page xx - Fenelon completes this thought with a wonderful passage which Rousseau must have had in mind when he wrote the Economie politique for Diderot's Encyclopedie sixty years later: 'All these [ancient] legislators and philosophers who reasoned about laws presupposed that the fundamental principle of political society was that of preferring the public to the self — not through hope of serving one's own interests, but through the simple, pure disinterested love of the political order, which is beauty,...