Vilified by generations of philosophers and moralists, the goddess Folly decides to climb onto the pulpit and vindicate herself, since humankind stubbornly refuses to acknowledge her many indisputable virtues. Doesn't she make life a blessing by giving men and women illusions, by filling them with vain ambitions and by preventing them from taking the world's sorrows and evils too seriously? Isn't she the one whom superstitious clerics, pedantic grammarians, hair-splitting lawyers, self-conceited poets and religious charlatans should be adoring?
A satire on the intrinsic vanity of the social order and an exhortation towards a humanistic Christianity, Erasmus's
In Praise of Folly - written in 1509 and put on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Council of Trent in 1559 after becoming the greatest literary success of the Humanistic Age - is the towering achievement of one of the most brilliant minds of all time, and one of the most influential books ever written.
Published here in a new translation by Roger Clarke which brings out the underlying humour of the original, Erasmus's masterpiece is presented in this volume with one of his lesser-known satirical dialogues,
Pope Julius Barred From Heaven, and with a selection from his other great work,
The Adagia.
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'Erasmus searched for reconciliation between Faith and
Reason, refusing not only the dogmas of Faith,
but the dogmas of Reason as well.'
Carlos Fuentes
'
In 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 Guardian
'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
'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
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Read an excerpt from
In Praise of Folly
