Les Vertus communes

The aim of this book is not to describe the great heroic virtues that demand abnegation and dwell within the realm of the sublime. “Common virtues” concern our daily lives, and their tenets are basic: do not seek to be influential, remain discreet by being modest, and respect this earnest restraint that forms the core of our society. Carlo Ossola invites us to pursue the path of wisdom, stopping along the way to explore twelve minor virtues: congeniality, prudence, gentleness, honesty, loyalty, gratitude, foresight, politeness, moderation, calmness, constancy, and generosity, which we should exercise every day: at work, within our family circles, and with ourselves, in order to help each of us transform our ordinary life into a happy one. Carlo Ossola is a professor at Collège de France, where he chairs the department of “Littératures modernes de l’Europe néolatine.” His recent books include: Fables d’identité, pour retrouver l’Europe (2018), L’Automne de la Renaissance (Les Belles Lettres, 2018), and Les Vertus communes (Les Belles Lettres, 2019). Lucien d'Azay, born in 1966, is a writer and a translator who works from French into English and Italian into French. Les Belles Lettres published Le Faussaire et son double, vie de Thomas Chatterton in 2009, and Trois excentriques anglais in 2011 (which received the Prix de la Revue des Deux Mondes in 2012). His most recent books are Sur les Chemins de Palmyre (La Table Ronde, 2012), Keats, Keepsake (Les Belles Lettres, 2014) and Dictionnaire insolite de Florence (Cosmopole, 2015).