Baltasar Gracián | |
|---|---|
 Baltasar Gracián | |
| Born | (1601-01-08)8 January 1601 |
| Died | 6 December 1658(1658-12-06) (aged 57) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 17th-century philosophy |
| Region | |
| School | Spanish Baroque literature,Christian philosophy |
| Main interests | Political philosophy,moral philosophy |
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Baltasar Gracián y MoralesS.J. (Spanish:[baltaˈsaɾɣɾaˈθjan]; 8 January 1601 – 6 December 1658), better known asBaltasar Gracián, was a SpanishJesuit priest andBaroque prose writer andphilosopher. He was born inBelmonte, nearCalatayud (Aragón). His writings were lauded bySchopenhauer andNietzsche.[1]He is best known for his bookThe Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), but his novelEl Criticón (1651-57) is considered his greatest work.
The son of a doctor, in his childhood Gracián lived with his uncle, who was apriest. He studied at a Jesuit school in 1621 and 1623 andtheology in Zaragoza. He was ordained in 1627 and took his final vows in 1635.
He assumed the vows of theJesuits in 1633 and dedicated himself to teaching in various Jesuit schools. He spent time inHuesca, where he befriended the local scholarVincencio Juan de Lastanosa, who helped him achieve an important milestone in his intellectual upbringing. He acquired fame as a preacher, although some of his oratorical displays, such as reading a letter sent from Hell from the pulpit, were frowned upon by his superiors. He was named Rector of the Jesuit College ofTarragona and wrote works proposing models for courtly conduct such asEl héroe (The Hero),El político (The Politician), andEl discreto (The Discreet One). During theCatalan Revolt, he was chaplain for the Spanish army that lifted the French siege ofLleida (Lérida) in 1646.[2]
In 1651, he published the first part of theEl Criticón without the permission of his superiors, whom he disobeyed repeatedly. That attracted the Society's displeasure. Ignoring the reprimands, he published the second part ofCriticón in 1657 and so he was sanctioned and exiled toGraus in early 1658. Soon, Gracián wrote to apply for membership in another religious order. His demand was not met, but his sanction was reduced. In April 1658, he was sent to several minor positions under the college ofTarazona. His physical decline prevented him from attending the provincial congregation ofCalatayud and on 6 December 1658 Gracián died in Tarazona, near Zaragoza in the Kingdom ofAragón.[3]
Gracián is the most representative writer of the SpanishBaroque literary style known asConceptismo (Conceptism), of which he was the most important theoretician; hisAgudeza y arte de ingenio (Wit and the Art of Inventiveness) is at once apoetic, arhetoric and ananthology of the conceptist style.
In 1985, the Aragonese village in which he was born, Belmonte de Calatayud (Belmonte del Río Perejiles) officially changed its name toBelmonte de Gracián in his honour.[4]
The three parts of theEl Criticón, published in 1651, 1653 and 1657, achieved fame in Europe, especially in German-speaking countries. It is the author's masterpiece and one of the great works of theSiglo de Oro. It is a lengthy allegorical novel with philosophical overtones. It recalls theByzantine style of novel in its many vicissitudes and in the numerous adventures to which the characters are subjected, as well as thepicaresque novel in its satirical take on society, as evidenced in the long pilgrimage undertaken by the main characters: Critilo, the "critical man" who personifies disillusionment, and Andrenio, the "natural man" who represents innocence and primitive impulses. The author constantly exhibits a perspectivist technique that unfolds according to the criteria or points of view of both characters, but in an antithetical rather than plural way as inMiguel de Cervantes. The novel reveals a philosophy,pessimism, with which one of its greatest readers and admirers, the 19th century German philosopherArthur Schopenhauer, identified.
The following is a summary of theEl criticón, reduced almost to the point of a sketch, of a complex work that demands detailed study.
Critilo, man of the world, is shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Santa Elena, where he meets Andrenio, the natural man, who has grown up completely ignorant of civilization. Together they undertake a long voyage to the Isle of Immortality, travelling the long and prickly road of life. In the first part, "En la primavera de la niñez" ("In the Spring of Childhood"), they join the royal court, where they suffer all manner of disappointments; in the second part, "En el otoño de la varonil edad" ("In the Autumn of the Age of Manliness"), they pass throughAragon, where they visit the house of Salastano (ananagram of the name of Gracián's friend Lastanosa), and travel to France, which the author calls the "wasteland of Hipocrinda", populated entirely by hypocrites and dunces, ending with a visit to a house of lunatics. In the third part, "En el invierno de la vejez" ("In the Winter of Old Age"), they arrive in Rome, where they encounter an academy where they meet the most inventive of men, arriving finally at the Isle of Immortality. He is intelligent and contributed greatly to the world. One of his most famous phrases is "Respect yourself if you would have others respect you."[5]
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Gracián's style, generically calledconceptism, is characterized byellipsis and the concentration of a maximum of significance in a minimum of form, an approach referred to in Spanish asagudeza (wit), and which is brought to its extreme in theOráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia (literallyManual Oracle and Art of Discretion, commonly translated asThe Art of Worldly Wisdom), which is almost entirely composed of three hundred maxims with commentary. He constantly plays with words: each phrase becomes a puzzle, using the most diverse rhetorical devices.
Its appeal has endured: in 1992, Christopher Maurer's translation of this book remained 18 weeks (2 weeks in first place) inThe Washington Post's list of Nonfiction General Best Sellers. It has sold nearly 200,000 copies.
The1911Encyclopædia Britannica wrote of Gracián that: "He has been excessively praised bySchopenhauer, whose appreciation of the author induced him to translate his works into German, and he has also been praised byTicknor and others. He is an acute thinker and observer, led by his systematic misanthropy and by his fantastic literary theories".[6]Nietzsche wrote ofEl Discreto, "Europe has never produced anything finer or more complicated in matters of moral subtlety," and Schopenhauer, who translated it into German, considered the book "Absolutely unique... a book made for constant use... a companion for life" for "those who wish to prosper in the great world."[7]
The English translation ofOráculo manual by Joseph Jacobs (London: Macmillan and Co., Limited), first published in 1892, was a huge commercial success, with many reprintings over the years (most recently by Shambala). Jacobs's translation is alleged to have been read byWinston Churchill, seven years later, on the ship taking him to the Boer Wars.
In Paris, in 1924, a revision and reprint of the translation into French byAbraham Nicolas Amelot de La Houssaye, with a preface byAndré Rouveyre, attracted a wide readership there, and was admired byAndré Gide. A new translation by Christopher Maurer (New York: Doubleday) became a national bestseller in the U.S. in 1992[1], and the English edition, which sold almost 200,000 copies, was translated into Finnish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and many other languages.
The only publication which bears Gracián's name isEl Comulgatorio (1655); his more important books were issued under the pseudonym of Lorenzo Gracián (a supposed brother of the writer) or under the anagram of Gracía de Marlones. Gracián was punished for publishing without his superior's permissionEl Criticón, but no objection was taken to its substance.[9]
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