The Adventures of Telemachus - Paperback

Fénelon: - Fénelon was born August 6, 1651, at the chateau de Fénelon, the next oldest of four children from the second marriage of a minor nobleman in the Perigord region of France. He lived in the ancestral home until the age of twelve, where he was initiated into the study of ancient classical scholars. He continued his education at the University of Cahors, then the Collège du Plessis, in Paris. Having lost his father early in his childhood, his uncle, the Marquis de Fénelon, convinced him to enter into the seminary of Saint Sulpice. Ordained a priest at the age of twenty-four, he devoted the next fourteen years to religious studies and pedagogical theories where he distinguished himself as an advocate for the education nominate Fénelon as preceptor to the oldest grandchild, the duc de Bourgogne along with his two brothers. For his young charges, Fénelon directed and prepared curriculum, including the Fables, followed by the Dialogues des Morts (Dialogues of the Dead), and ultimately Les Aventures de Telemaque (The Adventures of Telemachus). Admitted to the prestigious Académie Français in 1693, he received from the king in 1694 the abbey of Saint-Valery, followed by the archbishopric of Cambrai in 1695. As archbishop he was compelled to spend nine months of the year in his parish at Cambrai and, continuing as preceptor to the young princes, three at Versailles. In 1697, Fénelon published another masterpiece, l'Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la vie intérieure (Explication of the maxims of the saints on the interior life). His advocate-cum-adversary, Bishop Bossuet challenged them as unorthodox and, with King Louis XIV's approval, convinced the pope to condemn several of the maxims. Despite the considerable income afforded Fénelon by his responsibilities as abbot and archbishop, he died penniless in Cambrai following a carriage accident in 1715. He had expended all his resources in attending to his parish. His legacy of spiritual growth, selflessness and ideals of leadership live on in his writings and his admirers.