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literary magazine, December 05

The Literary Magazine
Books of the Month, December 2005

From Baltasar Gracian, a Jesuit and solitary rebel, born in Aragon in the classical age (1601-1658) and admired by modern philosophers, from La Rochefoucauld to Jankélévitch, passing by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, it often reduces the production Hero and The Man in court , more rarely Criticón . Yet his work was fully translated into Latin, Italian and French, and several times reprinted during his lifetime, before becoming a literary curiosity that inspires most beautiful souls and specialists.
If we take yet understand why this philosopher by profession, which failed in its draft political adviser of the prince, like Plato in his time, could pass for the Iberian Machiavelli, praising the same act ambition, caution and concealment, we can only wish to read all of his texts. Dreaming example to see them together in an amount that is at the height of his genius, while remaining within reach of the common stock of the readers.
can be seen as is now done with the first French edition of the entire political treaties, esthetic and ethical of Gracian, translated and introduced by Benito Pelegrin, specialist of European Baroque. Suffice to say that this issue opens with a new era already necessary for approval of a grandiose project of moral edification, whose unit has not finished conceptual dazzle those who want to see clearly in existence.

Stéphane Ploccari

Treaties political, aesthetic, ethical Baltasar Gracian. Translated from English, introduced and annotated by Benito Pelegrín Ed. du Seuil, 940 p., 33 €.

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Mention in the Blog P. Assouline, Dec.05

How not to salute the work done by the Threshold the moralist Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658)? In one volume (932 pages, 33 euros), it has the Treaties, Political, Ethical and Aesthetic presented and translated by Benito Pelegrin Baroque specialist, who gave this to Gracian "his French voice while keeping his English accent. " Unable to speak the honest man and the courtier, the lifestyle of a gentleman or figures of the mind without passing through "the" Gracian, now in the freshness of this new translation. Pierre Assouline


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article Freud-Lacan.com (November 24, 2005) Issue

FREUD-LACAN.COM
Association International Lacanian

About the book Treaties political, aesthetic, ethical Baltasar Gracian (trans. Benito Pelegrin, Seuil)
Thierry Florentin - 24/11/2005

Baltasar Gracian was a English Jesuit moralist of the seventeenth century, author of some moral and political treatises ran Europe ( The Hero, The honest man ,...) and a secular novel El Criticón .

In his collection of aphorisms, some of us remember may have discovered in the early 80s, in a little book edited by Jean Edern Hallier as the Pocket Manual of yesterday for today's politicians and others, and whose title is true "Oracle and manual art of caution," the thought of Baltasar Gracian continues a long tradition of ancient art of living (Seneca, Epictetus Erasmus, Plutarch, Martial, Tacitus ,..), he tries to reconciled with the principles of Christian thought. The university
Benito Pelegrin, who likes to point out that this book would be a favorite of business and finance from New York, took this today translation, which was the first in France since the seventeenth century, a new version, consolidated, revised and corrected, closer to the original language and style of Baltasar Gracian. This collection
which Lacan refers in his lecture of 20 January 1971-Seminar XVIII: From a speech that was not the pretend-collection which was then known in France under the title of his first translator, Amelot de la Houssaie, The courtier (2).
Since its release in 1647, the book was a considerable success, was immediately translated into several languages, "the Hungarian Swedish through the Russian and Latin (B. Pelegrin)", and Gracian was widely taken and plundered in turn by European philosophers and moralists, who, Schopenhauer to Boileau, and Molière to Jankelevitch, owe one of their anchor points.
In "The Freudian thing," Lacan also mentions that "... line of moralists (in which it is naturally take place Freud) ... which is embodied in a tradition of humanistic analysis, milky way to heaven European culture where Baltasar Gracian and La Rochefoucauld make figures out of the first magnitude, a nova and Nietzsche as quickly as lightning back in the darkness "( Writings, p. 407). [...]
But this is not so much by art and cunning stratagems, ably expounded by Gracian who detain us, we willingly give up the golden boys and other devotees of individual success at the expense of others, yet we could without wasting time commenting again the thought of Gracian, including the division, and for example this aphorism 181, pique against Jansenism, where he states that the truth can not be known until mid-: No todas las verdades is pueden Dezire, after what Lacan might be translated as "not-all of truth can be told." For engineering
Baroque Gracian based on the art of aphoristic formula, brief, concise, brilliant, striking, ultimately, where Witz, the joke, what he calls the "concepto" is used to serve the art of preaching whose sole purpose Jesuitism forces, is persuasive effectiveness, where "feel the affect is referred to as the effect".
This particular speaking style has been classified and theorized by Gracian methodical with great accuracy in a book whose reading will be useful to the psychoanalyst, Agudeza Ingenio y arte (Art and the spirit figures). The
Agudeza is "acuity" (3), the figure reveals that the external mind, a trait, a pointed words sharp, biting, stinging, arrow, sharp voice, but can also be found to be a gesture or even silence ...
The joke is, however, never to Gracian, an elegant figure and free of rhetoric (4), but must be entirely at the service or theological mystery is the art of preaching, the unveiling or enigmatic of the human soul. If enjoyment of the joke there, it can not just be purely oral, it must be phallic.
This is just as likely that it will shift work away from those who receive it. "I want you singular, "wrote Gracian highlight the reader's" Heroes, "" and I write short, because you know the long, short, because I am limited and I do not want to arrest you more for you to go over far ".
Specifically it is the elision or addition of one letter, not so easy to render in translation (5) which will trigger the listener the impression of truth by which Gracian dedicate victory Baroque (the sound) on classicism (the idea).
In a key chapter of Agudeza y arte de Ingenio, the speech XXXII, entitled "Figures by paronomasia, puns and wordplay," it says by Example: "It transforms the way in transforming a letter." When this is done with large estates and in harmony with the subject, the line is sublime. "
But the anagram, the arrangement of phonemes, and other figures of paronomasia such as alliteration, assonance, play sound, are equally essential to capture the original style of Gracian.
Thus God's example, English, SUN-OS: I gave you ... (Life, children, property, health, land, sky, being, grace, myself ...), providing the pun says Pelegrin, "through the exaltation of divine name, his moral and religious. "
We are thus faced with a work composed in the seventeenth century, and posing with a lot of "acuity" the issue of the letter and its fall, bringing with it the fall or the assumption of a signifier still unbelievable to the reader, presenting a new light on the question of desire and truth, and on the question of the object a.
Note that this last question always arises inevitably in a moral treatise, which necessarily fall in line on one side the desire and enjoyment, and other prohibited and repression.
We regret that this item also fairly complete, since it offers in addition to "The Oracle", and "Art and the spirit of Figures," "Hero," "The honest man" and other more minor texts, does not understand "The Criticon "which is full of wonderful examples of this type, but had already been presented by Benito Pelegrin in a previous book (" The Criticon "Baltasar Gracian, translated anthology, presented and noted by Benito Pelegrin, Ed.Le Treader, Nantes, 1993, where comments and ratings may represent a work in its own right).

(1) political treaties, aesthetics, ethics, Baltasar Gracian, trans. Benito Pelegrin, Seuil, 2005.
(2) "Someone whose example should be one day someone will load, Baltasar Gracian, who was a distinguished Jesuit, who wrote these things among the most intelligent that we can write "
(3) Note that for M. Gendreau, and P. Massaloux Laurens, the Agudeza is rather Pointe (see title translation: The Point of Art or Engineering, Ed L'Age d'homme, Lausanne. 1983. But such a choice does not perhaps sufficient account of precisely the magnitude of these figures in mind, except to the Treaty, Pelegrin denounces a "hardware studded." See note 4.
(4) Curiously, this aspect, which concerns at the highest point the psychoanalyst, does not seem to retain our contemporaries. It reads from the pen of Roger-Pol Droit, in the World of Books 14 October 2005: "The only question is whether such distractions have a future. Or if they are things of the past" This does not detract from the pleasure of reading, he concluded, of course, but that reflects the overall decline of the Freudian reference, especially in the realm of literary criticism.
(5) For example, 5 of the aphorism "The Oracle manual Art and Prudence": "No hare el numen that el lo dora, sino el lo adora that" (not which gilds but love, which is the idol) or "if no eres Casto is Cauto" (if you're horny, do not be heading). This is where the art of translation exercise of Pelegrin glue as close to the style of Gracian, hitherto unheard of for the French reader. Demonstrated again the aphorism 125, alluding to the rebuilding frenzy by the Inquisition, the genealogy of the new Christians, Jews or Marranos ex-converts, who would not present the entire "limpieza de sangre," purity of blood appropriate. Where Gracian wrote "In estas materias, el más Escarbas that, más enloda is" Pelegrin translated "In these sewers, more excavation, more is defiled. "This aphorism also shows, if needed, that Gracian was a Jesuit at least unusual, which will therefore be concerned throughout his life.

November 24, 2005

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FRANCE CULTURE (Nov 05) Article

issue of Sunday, November 13, 2005
Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658)
A life, a work (France Culture)

by: Francesca Isidori
Director: Francis Caunac

The recent publication in one volume and a new translation of Benito Pelegrin political treaties, aesthetic and ethical Baltasar Gracian is an opportunity to rediscover the work of this English Jesuit whose success at his age, equaled only by the wrath he drew upon himself to within his religious order. He who praised the art of prudence in the Oracle manual published all his books (except the Art of Communion) under the pseudonym "Lorenzo Gracian, a gentleman, but never ask permission of his superiors.

"Spirit ambidextrous" and always "knows discourse on both sides" Gracian is both the heir of the sophists or Castiglione and Machiavelli, but it offers the ideal human is universal, and that "government of the self he wants to reach everyone. For the art of success and effectiveness, which is the main issue of his work in a world where we must use "divine means as if there were no humans and human resources as if there were no God, "Gracian multiplying paradoxes and precepts, maxims and aphorisms in this concise, condensed, in games of language and meaning, and baroque designs, which are the best illustration of his poetic as expressed in "y arte de ingenio Agudeza. Over generations readers called La Rochefoucauld, Schopenhauer (who translated into German in 1861), Nietzsche, or Jankélévitch and Lacan.

Speakers:

• Benito Pelegrin. writer, essayist, professor emeritus at the University of Provence and translator of Baltasar Gracian
• Mercedes Blanco. professor at the University of Lille
• Alonso Tordesillas. professor at the University of Provence

For details, see the website archives de France Culture :
http://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-culture2/emissions/vie_oeuvre/fiche.php?diffusion_id=35832

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Nouvel Observateur (Ph.Sollers, nov.05)

Le Nouvel Observateur , 13 / 11/05

SACRED JESUIT! By Philippe Sollers


Just today still use the word "Jesuit" for cause immediately, especially in France, a rejection of bias. There are words like that, "Manichean", "Machiavellian" or, once, when you do not understand something, "is Hebrew "or" it's Chinese. " Jesuit means, therefore, long: false, hidden, hypocritical, evil, dark, scheming, perverse. In comparison, we are genuine, true, frank, honest, moral, fraternal, pure. Do not tell me that a Jesuit could be a thinker and a writer of genius, and he remains today, a news and modernity burning. It's impossible, I think not. And yet, though. And here it is: Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658) finally assembled and beautifully translated and annotated by his connoisseur Benito Pelegrín.

What historians, after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), called the Counter-Reformation Catholic opening on the baroque is actually the foundation of a new religion that has only distant relationship with the former program doleful. The Puritan Protestants and Jansenists have managed this miracle: to create a revolutionary attack against which we are still dazzled. Gracian, its treaties, participates fully in this dazzling infinity. Not English as a language, has gone to such splendor. Concentration, brevity, multiple points of view, intelligence, spirals, spillage, volts, it is as if God, we wanted to align and simplify, enslave channel and, in short, gentrify, replaying in his dimension elusive, incomprehensible, free, infinite, aristocratic. Gracian inaugurates a religion of the spirit "in the shadow of the Holy Spirit." Christianity and the Word become Enlightenment. It sounds extravagant, but it does. [...]

Against the flattening and the billowing threatening (Future of Capitalism), it is therefore sunk to form singularities. "What I want you unique! "Says Gracian, starting with a master stroke at age 35:" Hero. " Follow the "Policy ',' The Honest Man "(" El Decreto Tell ")," Oracle Manual "," Art and Figures of the Spirit ", all written under the name of Lorenzo Gracian (name of his brother) for not too offend the rule of the Company. He was called to order? It continues unabated. It is also unusual insolent, he can count on an enlightened patron, he receives his royalties, he must delay when he persists in it alone. At the end of his life, still a great novel under a pseudonym, the "Criticon" but at the same time, under his real name of religion, an "Art of Communion," marvelously mystical rhetoric. In sum, constantly at war with the energy of the devil in the service of God. Castiglione is a deeper, more assertive in a Machiavelli and lyrical. It will be widely read, plundered, imitated throughout Europe. It inspires the French moralists (La Rochefoucauld), is translated by Schopenhauer, is, of course, Nietzsche's ear. "Great men never die," he said, and it's true: there he is, paradoxically, as an author for the future (he seems to think in Chinese). The world is a void, nothingness is "a lot", but the language itself is more. Look, listen, what takes place in "the intense depth of the word." "The style is laconic and oracular so divinely, as the most sacred scriptures, even in its punctuation, it contains mysteries. "

The Hero is not the Prince, it can be anyone, you, me, someone else, the door of heaven is open, but the lie must reign and thus restrict arm to escape. "That all may know that no one understands you, for by this ruse, the few published many, many infinite, and infinitely more. The hero is the man of any community or any party, he exercised, he protects himself, he is a "prudent audacity" or an "intelligent fearlessness." The nothingness of the world is his opponent, he never plays the move that it implies, much less what he wants. What dominates? Stupidity, wickedness. "All those who appear are fools, more than half of those who do not appear. "It's the world, greedy, acid. Does this mean withdrawing from the scene? Hand not the contrary.

There may be an art of sound, combined with the subterranean solitude more lucid. No ascetic, practice, no martyrdom, the gap. Everything around you, maneuvers of interest background of jealousy, resentment, revenge? Irrelevant: you will "divert, nourishing, malice. "Exercise your enemies, they ask that. But beware: "Regardless of being right with a face that is wrong. Fortunately, thanks to the sharpness of your mind (agudeza, the great word of Gracian, that evokes the tip of the sword and the sharpness of the eagle), you shall not fear the chance, "What the mind can be great opportunities in the sudden! "The mind is a chance, a flash, an allusion to the angelic realms. That's why this disciple of Loyola is up say: "We must use human means as though there was no divine and divine as if there were no humans. "There, of course, everybody cries of cynicism, then it is simply the division of powers. Anyway, you know where you stand on the power and glory: "The glory is not to be the first in time but in quality. "

Gracian has always insisted that his books are published in paperback. You walk with him, you read it, you re-read, like Nietzsche or Chuang-tzu. You come across: "Everything must be double, and more sources profit, benefit, pleasure. "Or:" Understanding was once the art of arts. It is not enough, we must guess. "Or:" Do not expect anything of a sad face. "Or:" The trouble is usually a result of the stupidity, and there is no disease more contagious. "The es-took him, is" ambidextrous ", he always speaks on both sides at once, with two main qualities: ease, taste. "We measure the height of an ability to rise to his taste. "What you need to do? "Squirting slowly act quickly. "You're looking for the lost time? "We must walk to through the spaces of time until the heart of the occasion. And this, unexpected, amazing, extreme: "In short, be holy, because it's all up in one word. "You do not expect this new definition of holiness, I guess.

is that you have not yet understood the new anatomy, "look at things inside." See how do the saints: "They know much decipher the intentions and purposes, as they always have the appropriate figure-cons. The deception can boast only a few victories over them, and ignorance even less. "Better still, when Gracian wants to do his own eulogy, here's how he speaks of a Neapolitan prince: "Nothing could equal the mastery he displayed in the most desperate situations, his imperturbable logic, his brilliance of performance, ease of his process, the rapidity of his success . Where other bent back, he plunged his hand into the dough. His vigilance did not know the unexpected, nor his vivid confusion in an outpouring of ingenuity and wisdom. He could lose the favors of fortune, save honor.

"Treaties political, aesthetic, ethical," by Baltasar Gracian, translated from English, introduces and annotated by Benito Pelegrín, Seuil, 940 p., 33 euros.

By Philippe Sollers

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LITERARY Figaro article, Oct. 20, 2005 READ

THE SONG OF THE CYNICAL
by Patrice Bollon [October 20, 2005]

to the roaring 80's, New York, some sophisticated golden boys, as does meeting in more than in the pages of novels already yellowed by Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho as (1991), affected never leave without being in possession of a small book entitled The Art of Prudence , "the art of prudence, "they were carelessly exceed, the left pocket of their dress Ermenegildo Zegna wool and silk - it was between them a sort of recognition code - the cover page.

"L'Homme de cour", the English Jesuit Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658), is one of the major works of Western thought. La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyere, Voltaire, Chamfort, but also Pascal, all have read and built upon them, more or less open. The translation is now proposing that Benito Pelegrin gives new meaning to this book, closer to the original intentions of its author. If cynicism remains, it seems to serve an idealism.

For this book was their handbook, their manual of etiquette total. They found advice for all situations, both professional and private, but primarily to help in their quest to climb hardware. The titles of the aphorisms, that the book contained, beacons, it is true, by themselves, the rules of Snakes and Ladders or Monopoly modern in which they lived: "Going still necessary," "To keep well to overcome his master, "" Find the weakness of each, "" Knowing how to use his friends as his enemies, "" sympathize with the great men, "" Knowing the wealthy to use it and the unfortunate to flee, "" Give thanks in advance as what we will then give a salary, "etc.. [...]

The most astonishing case is that the manual was not absolute cynicism of the work of one of these brokers enriched by the e-economy, or one of those speculators shrewd Wall Street as the famous Warren Buffet. It was condensed translation of a very old English work, dating from the seventeenth century, specifically from 1647, the original title of the most improbable Oraculo manual y arte de Prudencia - it sounds like in French on: Pocket Handbook and practical guidance of prudence. As for its author, it was neither a prince nor a counselor prince, but a Jesuit, respected for his sermons and his mastery of casuistry, Father Baltasar Gracian y Morales. Born in 1601 near Saragossa, he died fifty-seven years later in a remote town of Aragon, where the Society of Jesus, exasperated by his incessant teasing, finally had to resort to the ban.

Nietzsche placed it among his bedside books
Universally known by its French title of "The Man court, as was accommodated in our language in 1684 by the diplomat Nicolas Amelot de la Houssaie, The Art of caution is of these books, rare, seem to find that in almost every age, a news item. Except for a brief period between the late eighteenth century and the mid-nineteenth, it never disappeared. And there are not great minds who read, reread, have inspired, even soaked, or sought to translate in their language.

La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, Saint-Evremond, Vauvenargues, Voltaire, Chamfort, each in turn looted, more or less discreet or open. Pascal shows by some of his thoughts, he had too much practiced. Schopenhauer, made it his personal use, a German translation, which appeared after his death. Nietzsche, who placed it among his bedside books, it drew some aphorisms of Human, All Too Human. And in the twentieth century, there was, more unexpected, Lacan, to admire the language, and Jankélévitch, who borrowed his notion of "je ne sais quoi" - an invention of Houssaie to make the "ease" within the meaning of "easy ways" in which Gracian saw one of the greatest qualities that a man can acquire.

A baroque language, steep and dark
This means that, contrary to what was often argued, The Art of caution is far beyond this "bible of successful unscrupulous "what some have hastily returned. Retranslation - short or translation (see below) - that today Benito Pelegrin, and political texts, aesthetic and moral that he was associated, can take, finally, the true measure This legendary work, beyond the endless clichés which, since its first publication, have obscured, if not bent scope.
What does this, in essence, this new reading is the place that is cynical, given the overall goal that was assigned Gracian in his work - namely, not to the key to material success, but allow the ideal man as he conceived it to locate in the secular world, to realize that alone, he said, was important: to complete the final battle against Death, and Of course, God. The language he used, as baroque, allusive, steep and dark than the classical Houssaie was intended, explanatory, clear and runny, so finely retranslated by Pelegrin, even acts as a sort of "rebirth" of the book.

Then comes, this business of "stripping" of the text, not about an entirely different than that conveyed by the version of the Houssaie but deep insight nine. If cynicism remains, of course, in both cases it takes a different value. It no longer appears as an end in itself but as a way to achieve success far exceeding material success: that of becoming a man "universal" in full harmony with me as buried - that it is a prince of a general, artist or just a "good man".

One could say, in this sense, it was Gracian, as Cioran liked to call a "cynical paper" is the opposite of a hedonist or a low-income (or -large) for success: an idealist, converted by force of circumstances to realism, and having decided to use his skills maneuvering to accomplish a lofty goal, transcendent. Without doubt this is the message, even highly positive and constructive The Oracle explains that manual may have appeared in every age, as new as if it were written yesterday. Too independent, too artistic, Gracian may have wasted his life time. He has done better by putting his cynicism in the service of his idealism, he conquered more surely than her ideal man virtual eternity.

literary Le Figaro, October 20, 2005

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article, Oct. 5

Read, The Literary Magazine under "Ideas"

Rediscovering Machiavelli English
by John Blain
Read, October 2005

A new translation of the aphorisms of Baltasar Gracian. Wit and humanities.
The English Jesuit Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658) is mainly its fame to its Oracle and manual art of prudence. This little book - translated into French from the seventeenth century by Amelot de la Houssaie under the title The courtier - has inspired many of his maxims La Rochefoucauld and Schopenhauer believed that this "little masterpiece" was " made to play the role of a real life companion. " Gracian y collects three hundred aphorisms most of his moral thought and policy. Some of them evoke Machiavelli when we, for example, invited to "seize the opportunity" to "know how to use his enemies," because "all things must learn to take, not by their blade that cuts, but by their handles, which advocates "or to" put the fox's skin, when you can take the lion's skin. " But if the advice of Machiavelli addressed to the prince, Gracian apply to those who aspire to succeed in this world of appearances is society. But this analyst disillusioned with the social comedy, the real success is not without a self-fulfillment, as "man [...] point is not born entirely; he improved every day tending to the person in his position until the point of being consumed at the peak of his qualities, his virtues . This moral perfectionism prefigures Nietzsche.
Gracian is above all a master of the Baroque literature English Golden Age. And one of the great merits of the proposed new translations by Benito Pelegrín is to make all their richness and subtlety to voluntarily oracular texts and an extremely brief intended to prohibit access to the vulgar, while the former French translators had tendency to bend the language of classicism Gracian requirements. The principles that governed this language are described in Baroque Art and figures of the mind where Gracian makes the laws of style and art of speaking well. This search for the "acuity" of the figure or joke that should concern is not pure rhetoric or aesthetics. She also performs - like the other tests that make up this collection - an ethical project, and revenue of poetic 'wit' themselves are, through a reflection on language, meditation on human destiny.

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Article from "World of Books", 10/13/2005

Gracian, the hero of cunning
THE WORLD OF BOOKS 10/13/2005

Becoming a Jesuit, that's a good plan. In any case a young man without fortune, a native of Aragon, in the early seventeenth century. With enough skill, he soon confesses princes. It would lead, perhaps, covertly, the course of history, if destiny helped his designs. Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658) has probably done this kind of dreams. But he could not realize them. His political career was poor church, not commensurate with the ambitions that he divines.
He spent most of his finally time to write, the sumptuous palace of his patron, Juan de Vincêncio Lastanosa. Better! Because the work is unique - voluminous, confusing and beautiful, a sort of diamond disheveled, if we dare say that coexist to the point of cynicism confuse black and puns, tactical and devotion, life style and lifestyle.
is why, for nearly four centuries, this work has continued to fascinate. Gracian's lifetime, his works were reprinted several times in Spain, translated into Latin, Italian, French. Those who read it, over generations, called Molière, La Rochefoucauld, Schopenhauer (who translated into German in 1861) Nietzsche, or Jankélévitch or Lacan or Debord. Among others. A new destiny awaits him, no doubt, with this first French edition in one volume, all non-fiction (1) of Gracian by Benito Pelegrin, who for over thirty years has devoted considerable work by this author and his era. You can find here all the treaties of the master of deception, starting with his thunderbolt initial El Hero ( The Hero), published in 1647. [...]

The text addresses a reader young, ardent, but inexperienced. Presumably intelligent and determined. "What I want you singular!" Said Gracian to greet him. This virtual double wants fame, success, power, an exceptional destiny. What is lacking? A method. Well, here it is! "You will find here not a treatise on politics nor economics, but a raison d'etat of yourself, a compass to navigate towards excellence, an art to be learned with just a few rules of wisdom . "

In less than fifty pages, everything is said. The line hits just the formulas are concise. "This reads well briefly reads," later said stylist. Key precept of the first treaty of Machiavellianism Daily: never discover exactly. Better to let others ignore what really holds such powers, skills or information. " We respect a man until we found no limit to its ability ." By not giving himself never fully see or understand, so it is possible to keep the hand, and win more easily. "You who aspire to greatness, listen well the council that all may know, nobody understands you, for by this ruse, the few published many, many infinite, and infinitely more ."

this rule of concealment, which involves both emotions that projects must be added the tactics of surprise, and required renewal. For if the novelty opens the path to success, she is by nature ephemeral. What lasts tired. The real hero will have to continuously invent new things, to remain in " splendor of sunrise . Regardless, of course, whether appearances rather than realities. This distinction is not over: the power is based on beliefs, it merges with the illusion of truth. Machiavelli knew that. Gracian extends the commandment to "government self, "the conquest of individual success in life everyday.
Any Gracian's work will continue and expand this initial exposure of the principles of life victorious. Ten years after Hero , The Oracle manual Art and Prudence details the maxims to be followed with a false coldness perfect. Nothing is left out, nor the praise of artifice or need to know your weaknesses or be generous when it's useful. It will be recalled, for example, do not complain (no need to show its weaknesses), not to unveil the draft a work in progress (keep its full strength to the finished work) and conscientiously makeup mistakes. We will not forget to be economical with his presence (and the desire to maintain a certain mystery) or to have his whole life, in every field, public or private, always have two irons in the fire.

short, it will be "holy . But yes, simply! It is indeed the ultimate board of Gracian, that summarizes all the others, and we obviously do not know how to hear. For what characterizes the prose, provided that a halo of sweet madness, it is an incredible genius for ambiguity. Impossible to know, ultimately, if he advises or denounces Gracian. It will return its formulas in all directions. Exactly, they are reversible! Master of deception, it does not mean face. "Ambidextrous Spirit," as he says, it is expressed only obliquely, in chiaroscuro. " truths that matter most to us always offered a hint ." That's why he prefers the term " two lights", phrases which no one knows if they are poetry or prose, which turns all these language games will trap the clear boundaries of ideas.

So there is not far from the "Filth" in the "angel" and vice versa. These games fascinate Gracian, sometimes dizzying. Enough, anyway, for he devotes to wit, puns and other tips for a significant portion of his writings. It would be wrong to believe that this is another side. The joke is a trick of the senses, speech biased, one way to break the uniform circulation of messages, a way to keep power down. Lifestyle and short style they therefore meet, or even merge. The joke is where the withdrawal is hidden. If so, Gracian is a hero. Not a preacher of yesteryear career buried by forgetfulness, but disorder still living who can directly affect us.

This could even say otherwise in a manner certainly more irreverent, but it would perhaps not disallowed, if the word made flesh, it should be possible to tickle, to transit, pinched, to excite. And so on. In this case, the only question is whether such distractions have a future. Or if they are things of the past. This does not detract from the pleasure of reading.

(1) In his great novel in three parts, Criticón The first two were translated Editions Allia

Roger-Pol Droit
Article published in the 10/14/2005

political treaties, aesthetics, ethics Baltasar Gracian . Translated from English, introduced and annotated by Benito Pelegrin. Threshold, 940 p., 33 €.