One of the high points of Renaissance literature and fuel for the coming Protestant Reformation, Erasmus' 'In Praise of Folly' is pretty thick going these days. It's a satirical take-down of human nature. Folly is praised as a god, along with its followers: self-love, oblivion, flattery, etc. The prose is exceedingly verbose, which has the virtue of providing a dense sort of lyricism to the screed but can make it a struggle to keep up with the overbearing number of allusions and double-to-triple meanings woven into the text. While the book (essay, really, since it tops at about 80 pages) has been described as a comedic classic, the humor is highly cerebral and works the better you understand the history from which it sprung. Regardless of the troubles modern readers uneducated in the humanities (such as myself) might have with a work it is a valuable text for understanding the history of humanism and Reformation politics. It's also a classic guideline for the construction of effective social commentary.

(This review originally appeared on zombieunderground.net) ( )

Erasmus was one of the great minds of the early Renaissance, a good friend of the lawyer/philosopher Thomas More and the theologian John Colet. ( )

Dutch

I tried. This is John Wilson's 1668 translation and I had trouble getting used to reading the useage. It's beautiful language but I still couldn't get going. As we change societally, we change our language. I got the gist of this book and I really like the concept but I am going to look for a modern translation. ( )

This is difficult to read because of the satire and the fact the Erasmus wrote a lot between the lines. It is a good read if you can get through it and a must-read for anyone who is an early modern historian or buff. ( )