Dialogues between the Dead, Volume I (English Edition)

Unsure of what else to do in the Underworld, the most famous and brilliant artists, scientists and statesmen in history sit around discussing life and the lessons they thought they learned from it.

The erudite Fontenelle gave these characters such clear, witty and quick expressions - striking at such powerful conclusions - that Nietzsche was forced to say, 'To enjoy a Platonic dialogue, one must never have read the immortal ones written by Fontenelle.'

This work - which instantly made the author notorious during France's classical period - grapples with alarmingly modern problems and gives practical, wise answers. Everyone from Socrates to Montaigne show up to share persepctives on mortality, worshipping the past, the struggle between ambition and pleasure, the advantages and disadvantages of being insane, and a heap of other spine-tingling topics.

Each dialogue averages about three pages - short and amusing, but filled with ideas that will give you laughter and food for thought for hours, if not for whole periods of your life.

This new edition finally brings to life a literary treasure that hasn't been translated into English for more than 200 years - much to the loss of every thoughtful English-speaking person.

Lovers of free, iconoclastic thought, laughing philosophers and conoisseurs of literature will be delighted to finally have this charming classic within their reach.

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