Early Modern · 1699
The Adventures of Telemachus
François Fénelon · 1651–1715
What it is
A didactic romance written for the king's grandson, in which a young prince learns that war is a calamity, luxury a poison, and a king exists for his people.
Why it lasted
Read as a rebuke to Louis XIV, it got its author exiled from court and became one of the most read books of the eighteenth century across Europe.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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