One of the most influential ecclesiastics, men of letters, ethicists and reformers of education in seventeenth-century France, François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon is little known today to the general reader, though he commanded a vast European audience in his own time. Continuing into the nineteenth century, perhaps his most well-known work,
The Adventures of Telemachus, has known over eight hundred editions. Despite his delicate health as a child, Fénelon became a master orator and was steeped in the Greek classics, which he was to employ in most of his widely influential pedagogical works that still hold appeal today. He was official tutor to the Duke of Burgundy, who was a grandson of Louis XIV and heir to the French throne. He was a protégé of the famous court orator, bishop…
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Citation: Dahlinger, James. "François de Fénelon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 December 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1498, accessed 22 November 2024.]
