Jean de La Bruyère

Jean de La Bruyère was a French philosopher and moralist, born in Paris on 16 August 1645 and dead on 11 May 1696. He lived in the France of Louis XIV, close enough to court to study its manners, rivalries, and vanities at short range. He is chiefly noted for satire, and for the sharp moral observation that made his name last beyond the quarrels of his own day.

La Bruyère came from a middle-class family. His father was controller general of finance to the Hôtel de Ville and was able to pay for his education and leave him a considerable inheritance. On his father’s side, the family could be traced back at least to a great-grandfather and grandfather connected with the Catholic League. La Bruyère himself showed disdain for the common habit of self-ennoblement, even signing his surname as Delabruyère in one word. He was educated by the Oratorians and at the University of Orléans, then was called to the bar.

In 1673 he bought a post in the revenue department at Caen, which gave him income and status. A connection through that post is thought to have led to his introduction to Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the great orator. In 1684 Bossuet introduced him to the household of Louis, Grand Condé. La Bruyère became tutor to the prince’s grandson, Louis, and also to Mlle de Nantes, a natural child of Louis XIV and the prince’s child-bride. Much of the rest of his life was spent in the Condé household or at court, among people whose conduct gave him ample material.

His major book, Caractères, appeared in 1688. Nicolas de Malézieu at once predicted that it would bring “many readers and many enemies,” and it did. The book combined moral reflection with portraits of contemporary society, and La Bruyère kept adding fresh portraits in later editions, especially the fourth edition of 1689. The people who felt attacked included figures in society and letters, among them Thomas Corneille, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, and Isaac de Benserade. Still, the friendship of Bossuet and the protection of the Condés helped defend him.

La Bruyère’s path into the Académie française was not easy. He was defeated three times in 1691 before being elected in 1693, and even his admission discourse was sharply criticized by supporters of the “Moderns” in the quarrel between the “Ancients” and “Moderns.” He died suddenly not long afterward, reportedly after being struck dumb among friends and carried home to the Hôtel de Condé. His literary work consists chiefly of Caractères, a translation of Theophrastus, and a few letters, with a disputed posthumous treatise also attached to his name.

La Bruyère’s words still appeal because they come from watchfulness rather than display. He seems to have been a silent, observant, somewhat awkward man, and that distance may have sharpened his eye. A line often quoted under his name says, “Out of difficulties grow miracles.” Whether read beside his battles with critics or simply as a compact moral thought, it suits a writer who understood how much character is revealed under pressure.