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Title: Lord Chesterfield's Letters by Lord Chesterfield, Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, David Roberts ISBN: 019283715X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75
Rating: 5
Summary: A treatise on good conduct, good living and etiquette
Comment: This is a masterpiece in self development work.He graphically narrates the importance of travel and education.The advice to his son Phillip is both practical and scholarly. Though at times one may get the feeling of "over kill", Chesterfield has embellished and tempered the book with sound practical knowledge.
Foremost, in the steps for acquisition of knowledge, was the advice given for taking up the study of various languages, especially Latin. The book makes for compulsive reading and must adorn every library.
Rating: 5
Summary: apologia for chesterfield
Comment: After reading a children's collection of Chesterfield's writings (The Book of Good Manners) I decided to get this Oxford paperback edition of the actual full-length letters themselves. Chesterfield's complete letters fill six volumes, so any one-volume edition is going to be a selection, but it was the subject of manners which made these letters famous, and this subject is mostly written about in his letters to his son and his grandson, and this edition contains 85 such letters. It also has a few letters Chesterfield wrote to various friends and associates and letters having to do with the functions of his various political career. Even if one doesn't much admire Chesterfield's advice to his offspring (for whatever reason) these insights into behaviour and human nature (in the halls of power or not) are not a bad thing to have an understanding of in your overall world-view. Despite the apparently famous and oft-quoted line from Johnson that these letters teach the morals of a dance master or a prostitute (what Johnson was probably saying was these letters describe the 'surface' of society and the insights and advice in that sense tend to come across as shallow, yet I think it's fair to allow Chesterfield to assume the potential character and substance and depth in the human beings who may practice the manners with the artistry that he describes them) some of Chesterfield's insights come out of (without trying to sound dramatic) esoteric teachings and schools, or at least border on the practices taught in higher schools. 'Tact', for instance, is a worldly word for a higher spiritual practice of seeing things from the point-of-view of other people as-well-as being objective enough about yourself that you can know what kind of impression you are making on others. 'Not expressing resentment', as well, is an art of a high order (dealing with emotional energy in general), beyond the obviousness that expressing resentment makes you look like a fool. In fact, Chesterfield paints a cumulative portrait in his letters of a human being who is not just 'going-through-the-correct-motions' but who is actually, potentially, more conscious (and capable of being more conscious) of himself and the world around him than the average human being usually is. Having said that, I'm sure Johnson saw enough trained monkeys (of the human kind) in his day fully capable of practicing these manners that Chesterfield describes, and so it's understandable that he may have cringed a little upon discovering their publication. Yet, hollow men (or mental vacuums) and fools aside these letters are worth the time of anybody interested in increasing their understanding of themselves, human nature in general, and society at any level.
Rating: 5
Summary: More than you think
Comment: While the prose is definitely that of the neoclassic, this text is filled with insight into the nature of society, relationships, business and leadership. I found a dusty old copy of this text in our university library when I was an undergraduate, and it has stayed with me throughout my life. Imagine that these are letters! Each one as carefully crafted as a published essay, and each with a specific point all aimed at the same goal: providing the author's son w/ the tools (weapons in some cases) necessary for success. Here's an example (a paraphrase, as I do not have the text at hand):
Each man is born with all the passions, but in each there is a governing passion which runs stronger and deeper than the rest. Seek out each man's governing passion, and when you have discovered it, remember never to trust him where that passion is concerned. Play upon it to your own advantage if you wish.
The text is full of wisdom such as this. I'm delighted that Amazon can find it for me.
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Title: The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare, Conte Castiglione, Baldassarre Castiglione, George Bull ISBN: 0140441921 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1976 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Maxims and Reflections by Francesco Guicciardini, Mario Domandi, Nicolai Rubinstein ISBN: 0812210379 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: 1972 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
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Title: Maxims by Francois LA Rochefoucauld, Leonard Tancock, Rochefoucauld La, Francois De La Rochefoucauld ISBN: 014044095X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 1982 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims (Great Books in Philosophy) by Authur Schopenhauer, T. Bailey Saunders, Arthur Schopenhauer ISBN: 1573920339 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 1995 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Art of Worldly Wisdom (Shambhala Pocket Classics) by Balthasar Gracian, Baltasar Gracian Y. Morales, Joseph Jacobs ISBN: 0877739218 Publisher: Shambhala Publications Pub. Date: 1993 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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