Maxim's of La Rochefoucauld, novel-style

May 17, 2011 4:13 PM

Obscure book search: a novelistic setting of the life of La Rochefoucauld, salted with his maxims.

I read this some years ago. I think I stumbled onto the book in a university library. It's probably out of print.

It was, as I recall, a short "historical" novel (in English), about the life of François de La Rochefoucauld. Periodically, the narrator would make a point by way of a pithy epigram. Naturally, each was one of La Rochefoucauld's famous "maxims."

posted by lex mercatoria to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

Best answer: One possibility, from here: "Bishop, Morris. The Life and Adventures of La Rochefoucauld (Cornell University Press, 1951) – a lively and gossipy account of La Rochefoucauld’s life. The author weaves into this account a large number of maxims. Whether the maxim was produced by the specific occasion the Bishop associates it with is speculation, of course. But the attempt to see the maxims as drawn from la Rochefoucauld’s life makes for interesting reading. Bishop himself writes with verve and authority, making this the best English-language introduction to La Rochefoucauld’s career."
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:59 PM on May 17, 2011

Response by poster: That must be it. Mahalo!
posted by lex mercatoria at 6:26 PM on May 17, 2011