The Praise of Folly Desiderius Erasmus, Clarence H. Miller, Clarence H. Miller

First published in Paris in 1511, "The Praise of Folly" has enjoyed enormous and highly controversial success from the author's lifetime down to our own day. "The Folly" has no rival, except perhaps Thomas More's "Utopia", as the most intense and lively presentation of the literary, social and theological aims and methods of Northern Humanism. Clarence H. Miller's translation of "The Praise of Folly", based on the definitive Latin text, seeks to echo Erasmus' own lively style while retaining the nuances of the original text. In his introduction, Miller places the work in the context of Erasmus as humanist and theologian. In the afterword, William H. Gass playfully considers the meaning, or meanings, of folly and offers fresh insights into one of the great books of Western literature.

Clarence H. Miller, now emeritus, is Dorothy McBride Orthwein Professor of English Literature at St. Louis University. He served as executive editor of the fifteen-volume Yale Edition of The Complete Works of St. Thomas More and is the translator of More's Utopia, published by Yale University Press. William H. Gass, whose most recent novel is The Tunnel, is one of America's foremost living writers.

"An eminently reliable and fully annotated edition based on the Latin text." Library Journal "Exciting and brilliant, this is likely to be the definitive translation of The Praise of Folly into English." Richard J. Schoeck