Fleming Foundation May Boethius Book Conversation

Voltaire's

Candide

Dear Friend and Fellow-Reader:

 

The next installment in the Boethius Book Series will take place on Thursday May 18, 2017.  The evening will commence promptly with drinks and hors d’oeuvres served at 5:00, at my house: 2719 Highcrest Road, Rockford.  The contribution is, as always, $15 per person, $25 per couple.   If you know someone who might enjoy coming, please invite him as a free guest.

 

The May selection is the Voltaire’s satiric masterpiece, Candide.  Voltaire was one of the most popular literary intellectuals of the Enlightenment, a brilliant and witty writer, who fearlessly attacked historic institutions, when they were too weak to fight back, and heroically advocated all the fashionable heresies and nonsense that would later take concrete form in the French Revolution—though as a social-climbing snob of great wealth and greed, he would have hated the Revolution if he had lived to see it.

 

If you are tired of confronting the cliches of third-rate liberals in the press, you should enjoy taking on Voltaire, the prince of devils, an enemy it is a pleasure to fight, I hope you will enjoy this book as much as you deplore the author’s all-too predictable attacks on Christian Europe. Since, at the Summer School, we are pitting Candide against Dr. Johnson’s Rasselas, this is a good chance to “get a jump” on the readings for the July (18-23) Program. 

 

Please try to arrive on time, if it is possible.  Nonetheless, because we know that many of you have busy schedules, we welcome late arrivals, but please, out of kindness to the others, arrive no later than five minutes before the discussion, which begins at 5:45 sharp We shall break up no later than 7:15.

 

Please let us know in advance if you are coming.  We make arrangements for food and drink after lunch on Monday, and would like to know by that time how much to prepare. Call me at (815) 621-5700 (a voice mail message is adequate if I miss your call) or email me at Thomas@Fleming.Foundation to reserve a seat.

 

We look forward to seeing you on May 18th.

 

Faithfully yours,

Thomas J. Fleming

PS. Gold subscribers to www.Fleming.Foundation can listen to recordings of the Boethius Book Series.