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Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) | |
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One of the major French writers of the 17th -century, a satirist and moralist, who became famous with his Les "Caractères" de Thèophraste, traduits du grec, avec les caractères ou les mœurs de ce siècle (1688). In this misanthropic book La Bruyère described a wide variety of human beings of the day, from the vain Philémon and tattling Celse to the superficial Ménippe and sanctimonius Onuphre. A man may have intelligence enough to excel in a particular thing and lecture on it, and yet not have sense enough to know he ought to be silent on some other subject of which he has but a slight knowledge; if such an illustrious man ventures beyond the bounds of his capacity, he loses his way, and talks like a fool. (from The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère, newly rendered into English by Henri van Luin, illustrated by B. Damman and V. Foulquier, John C. Nimmo, 1885, p. 352) Jean de La Bruyère was born in Paris (probably in August – he
was baptized on 17 August 1645). His father, Louis de La Bruyère, held
the office of Controller of the
rentes de la ville.
The family of his mother, Elizabeth Hamonyn, was
of bourgeois origin. In spite of financial worries, Louis made his best
to ensure to his children a good education. His brother amassed a
fortune by shrewd investments, and also acquited a title. "A man must
have a certain sort of intelligence to make a fortune, and above all a
large fortune," wrote La Bruyère the "Characters",
"but
it is neither a good nor a fine, a grand nor a sublime, a strong nor a
delicate intellect. I am at a loss to tell exactly what it is, and
shall be glad if some one will let me know." (Ibid., p. 145) Little is known of La Bruyère's childhood. He received a good humanistic education, and learned Greek, German, and Latin. After studying law in Orléans, he was licensed in 1665 and admitted to the bar in Paris in the same year. Against the wishes of his family, La Bruyère did little to advance his career, but spent more time following the quarrels and intrigues of his colleagues. With the help of an inheritance from his uncle, he bought in 1673 for about 24,000 livres the office of king's counsellor and financial treasurer for Caen. This post, which provided him a title, he could ill afford he later sold for 18,000 livres. From 1674 La Bruyère worked as a tutor to his sister's daughters. Because he was not obliged to move to Caen, he remained in Paris reading, meditating and living a recluse's life. "Some men speak one moment before they think, " he wrote. (The "Characters", p. 109) Between the years 1684 and 1687 he was one of
the tutors of the Duke de Bourbon, grandson of the Prince de Condé, who
did not take his studies very seriously. The Condé household was one of
the grandest in France. After his duties as tutor came to an end, La
Bruyère remained with the family, working
later as a secretary and librarian. La
Bruyère had plenty of free time to pursue his literary interests and
finish his book. Unhappy with his inferior status – and the title of
Gentilhomme de M. le duc – in country seats at Chantilly
and Saint Maur, he resigned his post just before Condé's death. With the "Characters"
La Bruyère earned a number of
enemies among powerful persons, who felt that they were ridiculed. Also
a Carthusian monk, writing under the pseudonym of
Vigneul-Marville, criticized the work. The first edition was sold out
in a fortnight. Eventually in
1693, after two unsuccessful attempts, La Bruyère was elected to the Académie
Française.
When his acceptance speech before the Academy was attacked, he had it
reprinted in the eighth edition of the his popular book. La Bruyère
denied that he had used real people as models. Jean de La Bruyère died of apoplexy in Versailles, on 10-11 May, 1696, in his home in Hôtel de Condé. According to some sources he became suddenly deaf. La Bruyère never married, but he stated: "Marriage seems to place everybody in their proper station of life." (The "Characters", p. 46) There appeared posthumously his Dialogies sur le quiétisme (1698/99), nine dialogues in which he sided with his supporter the Bishop of Meaux, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, in a polemic against quietism, a sect of religious mystics. The "Characters" made La Bruyère instantly famous. The book. published by the Parisian publisher Michallet, appeared as an appendage to his translation of the Characters of Theophrastus, the 4th-century-BC writer. As a source he used the Latin translation of Isaac Casaubon, but also consulted the original Greek text, but his knowledge of Greek was not good. To the 30 sketches he added 390 of his own. Gradually the book expanded and during his lifetime eight successive editions were published. The ninth (1696), which was in preparation at the time of his death, already contained 1,130 sketches of different personalities. The first translation into English, "by Several Hands," came out in 1699. La Bruyère work has often been compared to La Rochefoucauld's (1613-1680) Maximes,
which examined the behavior of the social elite in the form of epigrams
and definitions. Referring to La Rochefoucauld, La
Bruyère notes in the introduction, that his aim is not to write any
maxims, because he did not consider himself infallible. He also
dismissed Pascal, who "makes metaphysics subservient to religion" – La
Bruyère insisted that he did not imitate anyone. As a moralist La
Bruyère shared the same disillusioned view of human nature with Baltasar Gracián.
They both separated the
appearance and the essence of a human being. Gracián was interested in
giving advice and presenting his concept of an ideal man and ideal
style. La Bruyère's position at Chantilly provided him with a unique
vantage point, from which he could witness the selfishness and
hypocrisy of the nobles, abuses of the financial system, and how the
era of Louis XIV passed
by, with its glory and its failings. Yet La Bruyère believed in the monarchy and even flattered the Sun King, who is the subject of the tenth chapter: "All things succeed in a monarchy where the interests of the state are identical with those of the prince," La Bruyère stated. (Ibid., p. 264). To have a good king as a ruler benefited the whole nation, whereas tyranny "has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood; it prompts us to murder every one whose life is an obstacle to our ambition; and a man naturally cruel has no difficulty in doing this. It is the most detestable and barbarous way of maintaining power and of aggrandisement." (Ibid., pp. 245-246) A true Christian, La Bruyère wanted to reform people's manners and ways of thinking through publishing records of his observations of aristocratic foibles and follies. However, he was very guarded in his language; "Louis le Roi Soleil" was the only important patron of art in the country and courtly hypocricy made everybody obey him slavishly. "A perfect courtier can command his gestures, his eyes, and his countenance," La Bruyère wrote, "he is profound and impenetrable; he seems to overlook every injury; he smiles on his enemies, controls his temper, disguises his passions, belies his inclinations, and both speaks and acts against his opinions." (Ibid., pp. 183-184) Basically La Bruyère aimed to reveal what
people really are behind their social masks. All kinds of social types
pretending to be something they are not, are portrayed sharply and
vividly. But perhaps more than people, La Bruyère loved his
books. With this work La Bruyère could pay back at least some of the
casual insults and humiliations he received from the ones he had to
serve. "To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools," he wrote.
La Bruyère's style is witty and lucid, and his opinions clearly
conservative. In literary battles he
defended les anciens against les modernes. He disliked naturalism and Rabelais, author of Gargantua and Pantagruel:
"Rabelais above all is incomprehensible: his book is a mystery, a mere
chimera; it has a lovely woman's face, with the feet and tail of a ser-
pent or of some more hideous animal; it is a monstrous jumble of
delicate and ingenious morality and of filthy depravation. Where it is
bad, it excels by far the worst, and is fit only to delight the rabble;
and where it is good, it is exquisite and excellent, and may entertain
the most delicate." (Ibid., p. 23) Occasionally La Bruyère shows his awareness of social injustices and expresses sympathy toward the plight of peasants, but remains nevertheless a committed monarchist. He attacks freethinkers ("a strong-minded freethinker is in reality feeble-minded") and old people who fall in love, women run to extremes ("they are either better or worse than men", and in addition, "most women have hardly any principles". The main target of his satire were faults in a person's character, not defects of the social or political system of the time. For further reading: La Bruyère, portrait de nous-mêmes by Jean-Michel Delacomptée (2019); La Bruyère et le collectionnisme: vraie dévotion à de fausses idoles by Jean Viardot (2014); 'La Bruyère as Quietist: A Straussian Reading of La Bruyère's Caractères and Dialogues sur le quiétisme' by Ed Ford, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 98, No. 1 (Jan., 2005); "Les caractères" de La Bruyère, ou, Les exercic es de l'esprit by Marine Ricord (2000); Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères by Patrice Soler (1994); La Bruyère, amateur de Caractères by Floyd Gray (1986); The Dissolution of Character by Michael S. Koppish (1981); Du style à la pensée by Jules Brody (1980); Two French Moralists: La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyère by Odette de Mourgues (1978); Les Caractères de La Bruyère, La Bruyère au travail by Robert Garapon (1978); La Bruyère ou le style cruel by Doris Kirsch (1978); Jean de La Bruyère by Edward Knox (1973); 'La Bruyère's Changing Perspective on the Monarchy: From Aesthetics to Politics' by Michael S. Koppish, in Authors and Their Centuries, edited by Phillip Crant (1973); Les Caractères de La Bruyère by André Stegman (1972); La Bruyère moraliste by Louis van Delft (1971); Deux accès à La Bruyère by René Jasinski (1971); La Bruyère et ses Caractères by Pierre Richard (1965); L'art du portrait chez La Bruyère by Paquot-Pierret (1948); La Bruyère et Théophraste by G. Michaut (1936); Le Bruyère by Gustave Michaut (1936); 'Introduction,' in Selections from La Bruyère by H. Ashton (1928) Selected works:
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