Praise of Folly (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Desiderius Erasmus (Author), A. H. T. Levi (Editor, Introduction), Betty Radice (Translator) "During my recent journey back from Italy to England, not wishing to waste all the time I was obliged to be on horseback on 'idle..." (more)
Key Phrases: evangelical humanists, evangelical humanism, mock encomium, New Testament, Holy Spirit, Islands of the Blest (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Exciting and brilliant, this is likely to be the definitive translation of The Praise of Folly into English." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466 1536) is one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance humanist movement, which abandoned medieval pieties in favour of a rich new vision of the individual's potential. Praise of Folly, written to amuse his friend Sir Thomas More, is Erasmus's best-known work. Its dazzling mixture of fantasy and satire is narrated by a personification of Folly, dressed as a jester, who celebrates youth, pleasure, drunkenness and sexual desire, and goes on to lambast human pretensions, foibles and frailties, to mock theologians and monks and to praise the folly' of simple Christian piety. Erasmus's wit, wordplay and wisdom made the book an instant success, but it also attracted what may have been sales-boosting criticism. The Letter to Maarten van Dorp, which is a defence of his ideas and methods, is also included.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140446087
• ISBN-13: 978-0140446081
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #141,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ah, The Good Life!, April 25, 2000

By	Mark Valentine (Port Angeles, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Praise of Folly (Paperback)

Searching for happiness is a full-time job for me and it seems that almost 500 years ago--Erasmus wrote this book in 1511--others were looking for it too. They called it The Good Life ("summum bonum") then, and the ship of fools that were searching for it had completely booked its passage. Today, it's the same.

Erasmus doesn't let up. He catalogs every type of fool, every kind of folly, and has room to spare. Reading this funny, I mean, profound book, has given me a new respect for those idiotic life decisions I have made. Looking back over the grand scheme of it all...yikes! I can't believe I did that, said that, acted like that!

I highly recommend this satire for teachers, politicians, priests, professors, administrators, managers, Rotarians, poets, grave diggers, and anyone else tempted toward hypocrisy (and if you think you aren't tempted, I mean you most of all).

Reading this book can make you human again. And that is the first step toward the good life.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the amusement of Thomas More., April 30, 2000

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In 1509 Erasmus wrote Praise of Folly for the amusement of his learned friend Thomas More (author of Utopia). He wrote in the character of Folly, daughter of Money and Youthfulness. Folly declaims on the foibles of mankind-- sometimes in a light and humorous vein and sometimes taking careful and deadly aim at beliefs and abuses of the time.

One of the wonderful things about reading historical satire is that you get a sense both of the specificity of the time it was written in as well as of the general and enduring idiocies of mankind. Praise of Folly is a great book because it is equal parts familiar (railing about the pedantic nature of scholars) and exotic (discussing the interaction of church and heretics). The book is published together with the Letter to Martin Dorp, defending Praise of Folly to Dorp against charages of being insulting to theologians in general.

The Radice translation is clear, and blessedly puts the notes at the bottom of each page, making them readable. The book also comes with a context-providing introduction and bibliography.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Will be Last... and the Last?, January 16, 2000

By	James Inman (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Folly speaks: Whatever is generally said of me by mortal men, and I'm quite well aware that Folly is in poor repute even amongst the greatest fools, still, I am the one - and indeed the only one - whose divine powers can gladden the hearts of gods and men." So begins the greatest book written in the long convoluted history of man... If you've ever thought you screwed up somewhere or your whole life was one giant slip on the banana peel read this book to discover the inner idiot savant within... Proof enough that the world is filled with fools is the fact that I am the first one to review this ultimate treatise on the human condition... War and Peace, The Bible, Moby Dick, The Great Gatsby, Ulysses, The Communist Manifesto, Plato, Socrates and especially all those who lay special claim to be called personifications of Wisdom are crushed under the heals of Folly... [1] "For great orators must spend time preparing long speeches and even then find it difficult to succeed in banishing care and trouble from your minds, but I've done this at once-and simply by my looks." Everything you once thought of as ignoble will be turned upside down and made into a virtue... drunkenness, ignorance, self-love, flattery, forgetfulness, idleness, pleasure, madness, sensuality, revelry and sound sleep... [9] "This, then, is my household which serves me loyally in bringing the whole world under my sway, so that even great rulers have to bow to my rule." This book is the perfect antidote to all those pointless self help books, psychotherapies and/or Chicken Soup-Anthony Robbins unlimited power tapes... Throw out everything you know or think you know... Everything you know is wrong... Learn what great advantages Folly brings to gods and men alike, and how far her divinity extends... [35] "Those who strive after wisdom are the furthest from happiness; they are in fact doubly stupid simply because they ignore the fact that they were born men... they try to adopt the life of the immortal gods... with the sciences for their engines of war... Heavens above, doesn't the happiest group of people comprise those popularly called idiots, fools, nitwits, simpletons?.. All splendid names according to my way of thinking." This book was written on the back of a horse for no particular reason five hundred years ago... Buy it Now! ..