Three centuries of editing Fenelon’s Works
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Fénelon is first and foremost the author of The Adventures of Telemachus (1699) whose extraordinary success throughout the 18th century made him a rather improbable figure – that of a prelate admired by Enlightenment philosophers. When Saint-Sulpice, in the 19th century (relatively late compared to Bossuet), decided to edit Fénelon’s Complete Works, he wanted to do justice to the priest, the theologian, the philosopher, the eristic and spiritual leader, but deliberately left out Maxims of the Saints, which was banned by Rome, and questioned the authenticity of his correspondence with Mme Guyon, who was suspected of Quietism. It was only at the end of the 20th century with the publication of his Correspondence, initiated by Jean Orcibal, and of his Works by la Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, thanks to the latter’s student Jacques Le Brun, that we were given new tools to understand his writings.
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