Ларошфуко

In the person of La Rochefoucauld we must see not only the great writer, who showed in his maxims and maxims a subtle observation and original wit, but also the proud worldly man, whose motto is "honor and glory" and whose activity is mainly in military enterprises and dangerous conspiracies. The writer here appears relatively late, only when all hope for success in the political field is lost and when severe disappointments and physical infirmities force the strong-willed man to withdraw into a quiet distance from the turbulent public life. Very indicative of the true ambition of La Rochefoucauld is the fact that he decided to print his famous collection of Reflections from 1665 when he had reached the age of 52 and that the reason for this was the appearance - without the knowledge and consent of the author - of a "bad copy" of his manuscript, capable of giving a distorted opinion of the original. He did not aspire to the laurels of a writer in the least, although he was easily able to write poems and tried with success to compose memoirs. He sought his true glory in exploits with the sword: he always considered the art of war "nobler and more glorious" than the art of speech. In order to understand not only this preference, but also the spiritual face of Laroche Foucault in general, it is necessary to cast a cursory glance at the life destiny of the man who occupied such a prominent place in the literary history of the French 17th century.

The French moralists, to whom the late Gerard Boer dedicated a book of insightful essays a few years ago, are, compared to other French writers, little known in our country. In the past, perhaps the only one of our great writers, Stoyan Mihaylovsky, showed a constant and lively interest in the French moralists, with whose "Maxims and Reflections" he liked to embellish his original writings. But Mihaylovsky did not deal with translations, in order to give us "selected pages" at least from those authors in whom he found a rich source of creative inspiration. In our periodicals of the past, fragments of the work of the French moralists are occasionally found, among whom La Bruyere and François de La Rochefoucauld are the most famous. Joubert, Chamfort and Vovnard, who lived later than the first two, are comparatively much less known in our country. Even Mikhailovsky, who was more carried away by the "reflections" of a certain Madame Svechin and whom he often quoted in his own writings, did not seem to have shown any particular interest in Joubert and Vovnargh. The latter, who had a short life, as he died at only 32 years old (1715-1747), compared especially to La Bruyere and La Rochefoucauld, is the most optimistic: Vovnargh believed in the noble impulses of the human heart and in the purity of its passions. Last year, a young French essayist and critic, Henri Bonnier, published Vovnargh's works in two volumes at the Hachet publishing house in Paris. It is also interesting to note that Vovnargh in one of his texts criticized some of La Rochefoucauld's "maxims."