25 h 59 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 25 h 59 minPaperback · 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
You will enjoy this book if you like sharp satire, lively argument and the early roots of economics. It suits anyone curious about why people praise virtue and chase profit.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A thriving hive is built on vice
- Vices employ the poor and drive trade
- Honesty arrives and the hive shrinks
- Morality began as flattery of human pride
- Shame and manners hide passions rather than conquer them
- Even kind acts spring from self-love
- Luxury is relative and it feeds work
- A rich nation needs many hardworking poor
- Charity schools spread pride more than virtue
- Society grows from need, and the book still divides readers
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The Fable of the Bees
by Bernard Mandeville · 1714
A hive of cheats grows rich and mighty until Jupiter makes every bee honest, and then the hive begins to empty.
ChallengingOver 20 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What happens to a rich and mighty hive when every bee suddenly turns honest? Bernard Mandeville asks this in a poem about bees who live like men.
The Fable of the Bees at a glance
- Reading time
- About 14 h 30 min11 h 30 min fast, 17 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 207,400 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1714by Bernard Mandeville
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
A thriving hive is built on vice
The book opens with a poem about a busy hive that lives exactly like a human city. It has kings limited by law, armies, shops, ships and courts. Millions of bees work to satisfy one another's lust and vanity.
Every trade in the hive has its cheats. Lawyers stir up quarrels to collect fees. Doctors care more for fame than for their patients. Justice is blind, but her scales drop when gold is offered, and her sword falls hardest on the poor.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1714
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Mandeville, Bernard. The Fable of the Bees. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fable-of-the-bees.
Mandeville, B. (2026). The fable of the bees. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fable-of-the-bees (Original work published 1714)
Mandeville, Bernard. The Fable of the Bees. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fable-of-the-bees.
@book{mandeville2026fable,
author = {Mandeville, Bernard},
title = {The Fable of the Bees},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fable-of-the-bees},
note = {First published 1714}
}
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What is The Fable of the Bees about?
It is a poem about a rich hive of bees whose cheating, pride and greed make it thrive. When the bees turn honest, trade collapses. Prose remarks and essays then argue that wealthy nations depend on the vices they condemn.
What does Private Vices, Public Benefits mean?
It is the book's famous motto. Mandeville claims that selfish passions such as vanity, greed and envy, when well managed by laws and good government, create work, trade and national wealth, and so serve the public good.
Who wrote The Fable of the Bees and when?
Bernard Mandeville, a Dutch-born physician living in London, wrote it. The poem appeared first as a pamphlet, and he later added remarks, essays and a defence. A second part in dialogue form followed, and he died in 1733.
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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