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Praise of Folly (Penguin Classics)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 873.04
EAN: 9780140446081
ISBN: 0140446087
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: March 01, 1994
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Editorial Review:
A satire on the pretensions of Erasmus's contemporaries in the Church and philosophy
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - A modest disclaimer
"It is not wisdom to be always wise, and on the inward vision close the eyes" That is Santayana's wisdom. To play with it a bit ," It is not foolish always to be a fool, and on the outward shows and games of mankind make endless mockery. For who is the fool in the one place we are all to go?"
I remember reading this work in graduate school. A dutiful plodder wondering why I was not laughing out loud and being so amused. Rather I was falling asleep inside and finding the dull complaints of Erasmus ... Read More
Rating:  - A Modest Satire
Praise of Folly is what it was intended to be, a modest satire, not a masterwork. Erasmus was an interesting and accomplished man - one of the lights of his age. However, this work, written, basically, on a lark for his good friend, Thomas More, is a little difficult for the modern reader but is still, at times, quite humorous. Unlike the work of Jonathon Swift (many years later) there's little reason to read this unless you're a student of the period.
Rating: - Perhaps there is hope for us all.
Granted this is pretty dry reading. Erasmus may not be the greatest writer. This does make for a turgid evening if one plans or desires to read it from cover to cover in one sitting. That said, Erasmus rode (if not found himself starting) the beginning wave of the great reformation. In his writings (which bear a not so slight foreshadowing to the great C.S. Lewis) Erasmus gives hope for all of us sinners in the guise of wit. An important addition to any library of classical literature.
Rating: - Couldn't finish it!
Sorry, I tried several times to read this book. I hunted for passages that might interest me. Unfortunately, all I found was [the author] blowing his own horn. But then fantasy and science is about all that interests me. I'm sure someone with a historical bent would find this tale exhilarating.
Rating: - This fool is too wise
To say the book has less than perfect unity in tone, as was written in the introduction, pg xv, is an understatement. The reader is never sure whether it is Folly or Erasmus who is talking. Perhaps for the goddess of Folly, contradictions and inconsistencies are the very follies desired - how are we mortals to tell?
And that is what we have here - all the inconsistencies, as, for example, mentioned in pages xiv-xv of the introduction again, that Erasmus wrote with the learned sophistry he denied ... Read More
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