La Bruyère as Quietist: A Straussian Reading of La Bruyère's Caractères and Dialogues sur le quiétisme

Extract

In October 1687, the Parisian publisher Michallet was granted the right to produce an anonymous work entitled Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du grec avec les Caractères ou les mœurs de ce siècle. The first edition of the Caractères went on sale in March 1688, and the work became an instant classic. By 1696, Parisian readers hadpurchased eight editions, while an additional three editions had ap-peared in Lyon, and yet another in Brussels. In these later editions, the identity of the author was revealed: Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696), who had been hired by the Duke of Condé as a tutor for his son and stayed on as librarian in the duke's palace at Chantilly.