Moral Reflections and Epistles | Out of Print |
Ludvig Holberg
Edited by P M Mitchell
Translated by P M Mitchell
ISBN-10: 187004116X ISBN-13: 9781870041164
197 pages RRP £4.95 paperback 2000 Series A No. 8
Ludvig Holberg - 'the Scandinavian Molière', as he is often called - has long enjoyed a deserved international reputation as one of the world's greatest writers of comedy. In this newly-edited and translated selection of his reflective essays, he reveals a different and fascinating aspect of his literary genius: that of a wry and witty commentator on the life, ideas and society of his day in eighteenth-century Denmark.
The essays that make up the 'Moral Reflections' are on the whole of a serious and philosophical nature, yet couched in a style which is eminently readable. Here is a man at the very centre of the cultural life of Copenhagen - then the capital city of Denmark, Norway and Iceland - speaking to us like some modern Cicero and giving us access to the deeper sensibilities of his age.
In the 'Epistles', which belong to a later stage in his career, the element of intellectual entertainment was more deliberately fostered. Taking their inspiration from the English Spectator essays, they give a unique and fascinating insight into the mind of the Continental Enlightenment.
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