5 h 1 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 1 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the fool in the pulpit sees more clearly than the scholars, priests and kings she mocks?
In Desiderius Erasmus’s short satire In Praise of Folly, a goddess steps before a crowd to celebrate herself. Folly is boastful, funny and sharp. People may curse her, she says, but their faces brighten when she appears. Her claim is bold: without her, human life would hardly be worth living.
Her speech moves from the foolishness of childhood to the self-love and flattery that hold society together. Then her gaze sharpens. Scholars quarrel over tiny points of Latin. Monks prize rules and robes while forgetting charity. Through Folly’s praise of herself, Erasmus invites you to question what passes for wisdom.
What you’ll discover
- A speaker without shame Meet a goddess who praises herself because she trusts nobody else to do it properly.
- The uses of self-love Follow Folly’s argument that liking ourselves helps us please others and act well.
- Learning under a sharp gaze Watch proud grammarians turn small disputes over Latin into reasons to feel like kings.
- Pride beneath the robes Encounter a pointed critique of religious rules and ritual that leave charity behind.
- Laughter with a serious edge Look beneath the jokes to explore human vanity and the uneasy boundary between wisdom and foolishness.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love satire, sharp humor, and clever voices, and for anyone curious about the Renaissance, the old Church, or how a joke can carry a serious point.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Folly needs no definition, only an audience
- Folly gives life and keeps it pleasant
- Self-love and flattery hold society together
- The wise fail where the foolish act
- Happiness lives in illusion, nature, and gentle madness
- Superstition and the learned trades feed on folly
- Theologians, monks, princes, and popes stand exposed
- Scripture itself praises a holy kind of folly
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In Praise of Folly
by Desiderius Erasmus · 1511
A goddess named Folly takes the stage to praise herself, and her case against the wise grows hard to dismiss.
Challenging5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
Picture a goddess stepping before a crowd to announce that she is the reason you laugh, fall in love, forgive your neighbors, and get out of bed. Her name is Folly, and she has come to praise herself because nobody else has bothered.
In Praise of Folly at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 45 min2 h 10 min fast, 3 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 39,100 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1511by Desiderius Erasmus
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Folly needs no definition, only an audience
Folly opens by noting that her mere appearance makes every face in the hall light up. Listeners who looked drowsy and gloomy a moment ago are now smiling. She says this proves her power better than any argument could.
She defends praising herself. Great men, she says, hire clever writers to paint flattering portraits of them. Scholars have written speeches in praise of flies, fevers, baldness, and tyrants, yet nobody has praised her, though everyone owes her something. Who knows Folly better than Folly?
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1511
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Erasmus, Desiderius. In Praise of Folly. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/in-praise-of-folly.
Erasmus, D. (2026). In praise of Folly. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/in-praise-of-folly (Original work published 1511)
Erasmus, Desiderius. In Praise of Folly. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/in-praise-of-folly.
@book{erasmus2026praise,
author = {Erasmus, Desiderius},
title = {In Praise of Folly},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/in-praise-of-folly},
note = {First published 1511}
}
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What is In Praise of Folly about?
It is a speech given by the goddess Folly, who praises herself and shows how foolishness shapes love, friendship, politics, learning, and religion. Along the way she pokes fun at scholars, monks, princes, and popes.
Why did Erasmus write In Praise of Folly?
He began it on a journey from Italy to England as a playful gift for his friend Thomas More, whose name sounds like the Greek word for folly. Under the play lies a call for honest, practical faith.
Who is Folly in the book?
Folly, called Moria in Greek, is a goddess, daughter of Plutus, god of wealth. She travels with Self-Love, Flattery, Pleasure, and Madness, and speaks in the first person, so Erasmus can say bold things through a mask.
The author
Desiderius Erasmus
1466–1536 · Dutch Renaissance humanist and theologian
Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian from Rotterdam. He lived in several European countries, including England and Switzerland. He wrote In Praise of Folly in 1509 and published a Greek edition of the New Testament in 1516. He died in Basel in 1536.
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