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French classical author who is best known for his maxims; epigrams
expressing a harsh or paradoxical truth in the briefest manner possible.
His insights have influenced among others Lord Chesterfield, Thomas
Hardy, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stendhal, and André Gide.
"Our virtues are most frequently but vices in disguise."
(from Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims)
 La
Rochefoucauld was born in Paris. In 1628 he married Andrée de Vivonne
(died 1670); they had eight children. He joined army in his youth,
serving in Italy, the Netherlands (1635-36), Rocroi (1643), and
Gravelines (1644). In 1646 he was severely wounded at the battle
of Mardick supporting the cause of Marie de' Medici, he participated
in a conspiracy against Cardinal Richelieu (b. 1585 - d. 1642) and
opposed Mazarin (b. 1602 - d.1661). He was imprisoned briefly by
Richelieu for conspiracy against the court, and was forced to live
in exile from 1639 to 1642. Eventually he won the way back into
royal favour. In 1648-52 he participated in the Fronde - a rebellion
against the ministry of Cardinal Mazarin in the reign of Louis XIV.
After being wounded and almost blinded in 1652 in a battle in Saint-Antoine,
La Rouchefoucauld fled to Luxembourg. After he was allowed to return
to France, he retired from political life and devoted himself to
literature. First he lived in Verteuil, and from 1656 he was allowed
to live in Paris, making his home as the meeting place of a small
intellectual circle, including Mmes. de Sablé, de Sévigné, and de
Lafauyatte.
In 1667-68 La Rochefoucauld took part in Louis XIV's Dutch campaign.
In later age he suffered from gout. La Rochefoucauld died in Paris,
on March 17, 1680.
Although La Rochefoucauld was very productive as a writer, he published
only two works, MÉMOIRES (1664), and the RÉFLEXIONS, OU SENTENCES
ET MAXIMES MORALE (1665), better known as the MAXIMES. Mémoires
gained a wide audience but he denied its authorship. Manuscript
of Maximes were circulated in 1663 among a select group of
guests of his friend, the Marquise de Sablé. A pirate edition was
published in 1664, and an authentic edition late in 1664, but dated
in 1665. It became popular and appeared in five editions during
La Rochefoucauld's lifetime.
Rochefoucauld's Maximes expressed the pessimism of the disillusioned
nobility. In the salons and at the court everybody made mutual
observations of the members of these circles, and cultivated intellectual
competition at the other's expense.
"Mme de Sévigne says somewhere that she often had such sad
conversations with Mme de Lafayette and La Rochefoucauld that
probably the best thing they could have done would be to have
had themselves buried."
(from Arnold Hauser's Social History of Art, vol. 2, 1962)
As an 'essayist' La Rochefoucauld started with his self-portrait
of 1658 included in Mme. de Montpensier's Divers Portraits.
He also wrote other portraits, seven of which were published in
1731, and the other 12 not until 1863 in OUVRES (vol. 1). Between
Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld the essay as a literary from had
developed from formal letters and short treatises. In his Réflexions
La Rochefoucauld created a link from the essay to a new literary
genre; the intelligent and sensitive society portraiture. His essays
are marked by the same perceptiveness, wit, and restrained cynicism
as are apparent in the Maximes.
La Rouchefoucauld was a close friend of Madame de La Fayette
(1634-93, married to Comte de La Fayette in 1655), the novelist
and reformer of French romance writing. Their liaison lasted until
his death in 1680. Among La Fayette's best-known works are Zaide
(1670) and La Princesse de Cléves (1678).
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one
side.
If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than
our strength.
We are strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others.
It is more shameful to distrust one's friends than to be deceived
by them.
The intellect is always fooled by the heart.
One gives nothing so freely as advice.
One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one
hopes.
For further reading: Falsehood Disguised by Richard G.
Hodgson (1995); La Rochefoucauld and the Language of Unmasking
in Seventeeth-Century France by Henry C. Clark (1994); La Rochefoucauld,
Maximes et réflectiuons diverses by Derek Watts (1993); Procès
à La Rochefoucauld et à la maxime by Corrado Rosso (1986); Collaboration
et originalité chez La Rochefoucauld by Susan Read Baker (1980);
La Rochefoucauld and the Seventeeth-Century Concept of the Self
by Vivien Thweat (1980); Essai sur la morale de La Rochefoucauld
by Louis Hippeau (1978); La Rochefoucauld, Augustinisme et littérature
by Jean Lafond (1977); La Rochefoucauld: The Art of Abstraction
by Philip E. Lewis (1977); La Rochefoucauld: His Mind and Art
by W.G. Moore (1969); New Apects of Style in the Maxims of La
Rochefoucauld by Mary Zeller (1954); The Life and Adventures of
La Rochefoucauld by Morris Bishop (1951); La Vrai Visage de La
Rochefoucauld by Emile Magne (1923)
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