The Story Of Civilization - Part 8 - The Age Of Louis XIV

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THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION VIII

I i

WILL ju,d ARIEL

DURANT A History of European

Civilization in the Period of

Pascal, Moliere, Cromwell, Milton, Peter the Great,

Newton and Spinoza: 1648-1715

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THE INNER SANCTUM SIMON AND SCHUSTER

OF

PUBLISHERS

FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY

630

•

ROCKEFELLER CENTER

1

•

/P

KlYflYfh In 1926 Will Durant achieved world-wide re-

nown by

now

his

classic

seven years and two

have

won

since 192

1

greater acclaim

still

tion — the

Story of Philosophy. Thirty-

million copies later, he and his wife

series

by

their Story of Civiliza-

on which they have labored together

and which has been published

They have

in ten languages.

by their "intemethod" of seeing each period in "total perspective" (which is their definition of philosophy): i.e., presenting applied philosophy to history

gral

in

one integrated narrative

all

the facets of an age

— gov-

ernment, economy, religion, morals, manners, literature, art,

music, science, and philosophy.

MlYnYn\

In 1935

Volume

I

appeared

as

Heritage; since then, volumes on Greece,

Our

Oriental

Rome,

the

Age

of Faith, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the age of Elizabeth

I

VIII,

The Age

book

is

have appeared; and of Louis

XIV. Like

now comes Volume its

predecessors, this

an independent and self-contained whole;

considered the apex of

"Some

it is

which Spengler

the biography of a period (1 648-171 5)

modern European

civilization.

centuries hence," Frederick the Great correctly

predicted to Voltaire, "they will translate the good authors of the time of Louis the

Age

XIV

of Pericles or Augustus."

as

we

translate those of

Those authors

are lov-

ingly treated here: Pascal and Fenelon, Racine and Boileau,

Mme.

above

de Sevigne and

Mme.

de La Fayette, and,

the philosopher-dramatist Moliere, exposing

all,

the vices and hypocrisies of the age.