The Fool of Quality by Henry Brooke

Suggest and discuss books to read (all languages welcome!)
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InTheDesert
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Joined: August 20th, 2019, 8:25 pm

Post by InTheDesert »

The Fool of Quality; or, The History of Henry, Earl of Moreland (1765–70), a picaresque and sentimental novel by the Irish writer Henry Brooke, is the only one of his works which has enjoyed any great reputation. The somewhat shapeless plot is an account of the doings of young Harry Clinton, who, rejected by his decadent and aristocratic father, is educated on enlightened principles by his philanthropic uncle. Thus equipped to fight the evils of the world the innocent yet wise hero does his best to better the lot of the unfortunate Hammel Clement and his family, and other deserving cases, in the intervals between the author’s frequent philosophical digressions and commentaries on the action.

The Fool of Quality, it has been said, was

more deeply stamped with the seal of Rousseau — the Rousseau of the second Discourse and of Émile — than is any other book of the period…Before we can find anything approaching to this keenness of feeling, this revolt against the wrongs of the social system, we have to go forward to the years immediately succeeding the outbreak of the French revolution.

It was also strongly influenced by John Locke's On Education, by the writings of the Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, and by the spirit of the Methodist movement.
https://archive.org/details/foolofquality00broouoft/page/n1/mode/2up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_of_Quality
Medieval History Volume 02 The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire 99% 1 left! "The Carlovingian Revolution, and Frankish Intervention in Italy Part 3 by G. L. Burr"
DPL DPL 27 19 43
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