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About 10 h 50 min to read.Inizia 90 giorni gratisA chi è rivolto
This is for readers who enjoy sharp portraits of vanity, flattery, and ambition, and for anyone who likes to watch human nature in action. Lovers of French history and moral wit will find much to underline.
Che cos’è questo libro
Picture a courtier who walks into a room at Versailles and shows his whole character in a minute. He bows too low to the powerful, ignores the poor, and talks loudly about nothing. Jean de La Bruyère spent years watching such people, and he wrote down what he saw.
The Characters first appeared in 1688 and grew with each new edition. It is a book of short remarks, maxims, and full portraits, spread over sixteen chapters from writing and merit to women, money, the court, and religion. He says he paints humanity in general, not one court. You get its heart here, with its best portraits.
In questo riassunto
- 1Tell the truth about people and expect resistanceFree
- 2Merit goes unnoticed without influence and modesty
- 3Vanity ruins the charm it tries to create
- 4Love comes fast but friendship needs steady care
- 5The art of conversation is bringing out others
- 6Money changes how the world sees a person
- 7Town and court reward appearance over worth
- 8The great and their rulers owe more than they give
- 9People are alike under their changing fashions of mind
- 10Fashion and belief pass but the portraits remain
Punto chiave 1 di 10
Tell the truth about people and expect resistance
La Bruyère opens his preface by saying that his subject came from the public, so he gives it back. He wants to warn without wounding. He insists that the portraits are of humanity, not of one court.
In the first chapter he claims that after seven thousand years the finest ideas about manners are already used up. He has fun with critics. Anthymus condemns a book he never opened, only because two ladies he knows did. Theocrines listens to a reading and then talks only about his own writings. Others wait to see how a book fares, then claim they approved it first.
Corneille, he says, shows men as they ought to be, while Racine shows them as they are. A work that lifts your mind and stirs noble feeling needs no other test. Honest judgment is rarer than talent, because jealousy and vanity sit between us and good work. Praise a book for what it does to you, not for what others say about it.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of I caratteri di Jean de La Bruyère
About 10 h 50 min to read.Inizia 90 giorni gratisPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 148,600 words
- Reading timeAbout 10 h 25 min
Questions about I caratteri di Jean de La Bruyère
What is The Characters by La Bruyère about?
It is a book of short observations, maxims, and portraits of manners in seventeenth-century France. Sixteen chapters cover subjects like merit, women, money, the court, fashion, and religion, always showing how vanity and self-interest shape behavior.
Who are Menalcas, Arrias, and Giton?
They are portrait figures standing for types. Menalcas is the hopelessly absent-minded man, Arrias the bluffer who claims to know everything, and Giton the loud, confident rich man set against the timid, poor Phaedo.
Are the characters real people from the court?
La Bruyère says he paints humanity in general and not one court or country. Readers in his day looked for real people behind the names, but he rejected those false applications in his preface.
Is The Characters easy to read?
Its short entries make it easy to read in small pieces. You can open any chapter, enjoy a one-line maxim or a lively portrait, and put the book down without losing the thread.
What is the main message of the book?
People hide vanity, ambition, and self-interest behind politeness and virtue. La Bruyère asks readers to see these habits clearly in others and in themselves, and to value real merit, friendship, and plain honesty.
Cite this edition
La Bruyère, Jean de. The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-characters-of-jean-de-la-bruyere.
La Bruyère, J. de. (2026). The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-characters-of-jean-de-la-bruyere (Original work published 1688)
La Bruyère, Jean de. The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-characters-of-jean-de-la-bruyere.
@book{labruyere2026characters,
author = {La Bruyère, Jean de},
title = {The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-characters-of-jean-de-la-bruyere},
note = {First published 1688}
}
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