Background
He was born on January 8, 1601 in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragon).
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The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence (Penguin Classics)
(A unique collection of advice for life and perhaps the fi...)
A unique collection of advice for life and perhaps the first 'self-help' book ever written Written over 350 years ago, The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence is a subtle collection of 300 witty and thought-provoking aphorisms. From the art of being lucky to the healthy use of caution, these elegant maxims were created as a guide to life, with further suggestions given on cultivating good taste, knowing how to refuse, the foolishness of complaining and the wisdom of controlling one's passions. Baltasar Gracian intended these ingenious, pragmatic aphorisms to challenge the mind, and recognised that few would be capable of applying them. In Jeremy Robbins's introduction to his penetrating new translation, he examines Gracian's place in Spanish literature and his previous works. Robbins also looks at the themes, contexts and contradictions of The Pocket Oracle, as well as the brevity and subtlety of Gracian's cool-headed aphorisms. This edition also contains a chronology, suggested further reading and notes. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Baltasar y Morales Gracián
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated in the near-by Jesuit college at Calatayud.
Career
Gracian received theological training in Saragossa, where he later taught, and took his final monastic vows in 1635.
In 1651 he published the first part of his didactic novel El Criticón without the approval of the order and was disciplined for it.
His request to be released from the order was refused, and he remained under disciplinary action until his death in 1658.
Besides El Criticon, Gracián'sGracian's works, which appeared under various pseudonyms, consist principally of five treatises, El Heroe (1637), El Político (1640), El Discreto (1646), El Oráculo manual (1647), and Agudeza y arte de ingenio (1648).
All five variously develop one essential concept, the division of men into two categories: culto, cultured individuals with a superior command of themselves; and vulgo, the masses, who are a prey to passion, superstition, and other forms of unreason.
Thus Gracian's "hero" is not a superman or a great warrior, but a Stoic who is both a philosopher and a man of the social world. The Oraculo manual, given fresh fame by Schopenhauer's translation and known in English as The Art of Worldly Wisdom, consists of some 300 maxims that instruct the reader how to attain the qualities represented in the ideal types outlined in his other books. The Arte de ingenio is a kind of style manual that proposes brevity and wit as suitable characteristics for the thought, speech, and writing of the hero.
Gracián's own brilliantly epigrammatic style, on which much of his reputation rests, is so compressed that it is at times exceedingly difficult to read.
Achievements
Works
book
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The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence (Penguin Classics)
(A unique collection of advice for life and perhaps the fi...)
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The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence (Penguin Classics)
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Born
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Died
February 6, 1658 (aged 57) -
Nationality
Spanish -
Ethnicity
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Religion
Jesuit