Novel
The Adventures of Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses
Les Aventures de Télémaque
Fénelon · 1699
Opening lines
Calypso ne pouvait se consoler du départ d'Ulysse.
Calypso could not console herself for the departure of Ulysses.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
On the island of the nymph Calypso, Telemachus, son of Ulysses, accompanied by his guide Mentor, recounts the journeys he has undertaken to find his father: Sicily, the Egypt of King Sesostris, then Tyre, where the tyrant Pygmalion rules. From one kingdom to the next, Mentor instructs him in what makes a good or a bad king, and the narrative becomes a lesson in government addressed to a future sovereign.
Context
Written by the author for the instruction of his pupil, the king's grandson, the book was published in 1699 without the author's name and without his consent, and clandestine editions at once spread it. In the city of Salente, Mentor reforms the policy of King Idomeneus, in whom readers thought they recognised Louis XIV, and the work was taken as a veiled criticism of absolutism. The author's family published in 1717 the edition that is the standard reference.
Who it is for
A long prose narrative, peopled with names drawn from Greek mythology, which reads both as a journey and as a treatise on good government.
Prizes and reception
One of the most widely read and most frequently reprinted books of the eighteenth century, translated into every language of Europe and even into Latin verse.
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