Name: In Praise of Folly
ISBN: 9781616402907

Desiderus Erasmus

Comments on the upper classes and religious institutions of the Renaissance through the personification of traits such as folly, wealth, and flattery.

In Praise of Folly

Desiderius Erasmus

Betty Radice

This witty, influential work by one of the greatest scholars of the Renaissance satirizes the shortcomings of the upper classes and religious institutions of the time. The most effective of all Erasmus's writings — ripe with allusions, vignettes, and caricatures — the literary gem was not only an extremely intelligent and articulate response to pretentiousness of all sorts, it also proved to be spiritual dynamite, leaving monastic brothers and clergymen the objects of universal laughter.
The book's purported narrator, the goddess Folly, proclaims herself to be the daughter of Youth and Wealth, nursed by Drunkenness and Ignorance. She is accompanied by such followers as Self-love, Pleasure, Flattery, and Sound Sleep.
A clever mix of drollery and fantasy, fast-paced and lighthearted in tone, the work has proved to be a lively and valuable commentary on modern times. It remains, according to the great Dutch historian John Huizinga, "a masterpiece of humour and wise irony … something that no one else could have given to the world."

Praise of Folly

Varol Aksoy

Olivera Mitić

Good to know that humanity didn't change the slightest since the Middle Ages.

Andrea

Daniel Fernández

Aaron McCollough

Meg G

Meelahn

Erasmus Roterodamus

First published in Paris in 1511, this book is full of humorous, occasionally pessimistic and sometimes cynical diatribes against mankind. The author's principal targets: the Roman Catholic Church, his fellow countrymen, the Dutch, and women.

In Praise of Folly

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