Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe
Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe
Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe
Born Aug. 6, 1651, in the Chateau de Fénelon, Périgord; died Jan. 7, 1715, in Cambrai. French writer and ecclesiastical figure. Member of the Académie Française (1693). Archbishop of Cambrai (1695).
As a quietist, Fénelon carried on a polemic with N. de Malebranche and J. B. Bossuet. From 1689 to 1699, Fénelon was the tutor of the Duke of Burgundy, the grandson of Louis XIV. He made a prose translation of the Odyssey (1694–96) for his pupil and wrote for him a number of other works, including the novella The Adventures of Aristonicus (1699; Russian translation, 1766), Dialogues of the Deceased (published 1712; Russian translation, 1768), the prose Fables (published 1718; Russian translation, 1768), and the utopian philosophical novel The Adventures of Telemachus (1699; Russian translation, 1747). The hero of this novel becomes acquainted with various types of government. As the narration proceeds, Fénelon attacks despotism and defends enlightened monarchy, an approach that made the work popular during the Enlightenment. The plot of Fénelon’s novel was the basis of V. K. Trediakovskii’s narrative poem of the same name (1766).
WORKS
Oeuvres complétes, vols. 1–10. Paris, 1848–52.Les Aventures de Télémaque. Edited by J.-L. Goré. Paris, 1968.
Correspondance, vols. 1–3. Paris, 1972.
REFERENCES
Istoriia frantsuzskoi literatury, vol. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1946. Pages 575–78.Goré, J.-L. L’ltinéraire de Fénelon: Humanisme et spiritualité. Paris, 1957.
Haillant, M. Fénelon et la prédication. Paris, 1969.
A. D. MIKHAILOV