25 h 59 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the selfish wants you condemn help build the wealth you enjoy?
In Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees, a crowded hive looks much like a trading nation. Lawyers, doctors, merchants and servants all cheat a little, yet the hive thrives. Its bees enjoy luxury, good laws and a strong army. Their demand for honesty sets up a sharp question: can a society keep its wealth while giving up its vices?
The satirical poem The Grumbling Hive leads into prose Remarks, Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue, Essay on Charity and Charity-Schools, and A Search into the Nature of Society, with later dialogues. Across these parts, Mandeville challenges comfortable ideas about goodness. He argues that vanity, selfish wants and spending on luxuries give society much of its energy, while setting a demanding test for virtue.
What you’ll discover
- A hive of rogues Meet prosperous bees whose small dishonesties make their demand for goodness all the more pointed.
- Virtue under pressure Test your ideas of good deeds against Mandeville’s strict demand for resisting natural impulse.
- The work behind luxury Follow his argument that fine clothes, food, houses and coaches create work for many people.
- Charity without easy comfort Confront harsh opinions on the working poor in his disputed treatment of charity schools.
- Selfish wants, shared wealth Consider a society held together by desires that its own moral language condemns.
Who will love it
For readers who love sharp, disputed ideas in economics, ethics and politics, and enjoy an author who provokes. The satirical hive invites anyone intrigued by selfish motives, public virtue and the sources of wealth.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rich hive built on rogues
- Fools want an honest hive
- Virtue was invented by clever politicians
- Real virtue is rare and costly
- Luxury and spending make a nation busy
- Charity schools and the working poor
- Society is a web of selfish wants
- A public nuisance that kept growing
- How to read this book today
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La Fable des Abeilles
by Bernard Mandeville · 1714
A hive grows rich on cheating, vanity and greed, but its bees demand honesty and put their prosperity at stake.
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In short
The Fable of the Bees is a short satirical poem that grew into a book of argument. Bernard Mandeville, a Dutch-born physician living in London, first published the poem in 1705 under the title The Grumbling Hive.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A rich hive built on rogues
The poem opens with a hive that is crowded, busy and prosperous. Its bees live in luxury and have good laws and a strong army. Yet every trade in it is full of fraud. Lawyers stir up quarrels to earn fees, doctors care more for fame than for cures, and priests are lazy and greedy. Even the soldiers and the courtiers look after themselves first.
Mandeville does not leave the picture at that. He points out that these same faults keep people at work. A lawyer needs clients, so the courts are busy. A rich spendthrift needs servants, tailors and cooks, so many poor bees find a living. Pride and envy make fashions change, and changing fashions give work to weavers and tailors.
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What is The Fable of the Bees about?
It is a satirical poem about a hive that prospers through vice, followed by essays and Remarks arguing that selfish wants, vanity and the love of luxury drive trade and make a nation rich.
What does Private Vices, Publick Benefits mean?
It is Mandeville's slogan for the claim that selfish or vain behaviour, such as spending on luxuries, can produce work, trade and wealth that benefit the whole of society.
When was The Fable of the Bees written?
The poem appeared in 1705 as The Grumbling Hive. Mandeville added prose Remarks and essays in 1714 and 1723, and a second part of dialogues in 1729.
The author
Bernard Mandeville
1670–1733 · Anglo-Dutch philosopher and satirist
Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) was a Dutch-born writer and physician. He was born in Rotterdam and studied medicine at Leiden University. He later settled in England and wrote in English. His works include The Fable of the Bees, first published in 1714. He died in Hackney, near London.
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