'Tis Folly to Be Wise
by Lion Feuchtwanger
On This Page
Description
This is an intimate story of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the exalted, visionary, often ridiculous, little man whose heights of philosophical grandeur were equaled only by the degrading absurdity of his private life. It is also the story of his effortlessly adulterous wife; of the frivolous nobles in France who made it fashionable to read him; and of the heroes, villains and fools who built the French Revolution and its resulting in the days of the Terror largely on his words. This is the story of show more Jean-Jacques Rousseau's life as he lived it and as he described it in his celebrated "Confessions." It tells of the good and evil that came to the world largely because a cuckolded husband, who happened to be a greatly misunderstood philosopher, was murdered by his wife's paramour. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
Member Reviews
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
German Literature
514 works; 55 members
Lives of the Poets (and Philosophers)
110 works; 5 members
Writers as Characters in Fiction
120 works; 19 members
All Things France
100 works; 8 members
Author Information
Lion Feuchtwanger, novelist and dramatist, was born in Munich, Germany, the son of a wealthy manufacturer. The rise of the Nazis drove him to France, and after the collapse of that country he escaped to Spain with great difficulty. He reached the United States in 1940. A major work is his trilogy on the Jewish historian: Josephus (1932), The Jew show more of Rome (1935), and Josephus and the Emperor (1942). He was best known in Germany as a dramatist, but his international success was due to his revival of the historical novel written with modern psychological understanding. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- 'Tis Folly to Be Wise
- Original title
- Narrenweisheit oder Tod und Verklärung des Jean Jacques Rousseau
- Original publication date
- 1952
- Important places
- Ermenonville, Hauts-de-France, France
- Epigraph*
- Große Menchen sind Meteore,
die sich selbst verzehren,
um die Welt zu erleuchten.
Napoleon - First words*
- Nach dem Frühstück, wie jeden Morgen, las Monsieur de Girardin seine Post; er las ohne rechte Aufmerksamkeit,mehr aus Pflichtgefühl.
- Original language
- German
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 830 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures German literature and literatures of related languages
- LCC
- PT2611 .E85 .N3 — Language and Literature German, Dutch and Scandinavian literatures German literature Individual authors or works 1860/70-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 90
- Popularity
- 355,149
- Rating
- (4.10)
- Languages
- 8 — Czech, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 3
