Joseph Joubert (7 May 1754 in Montignac, Périgord – 4 May 1824 in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne) was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his Pensées published posthumously.
From the age of 14 Joubert attended a religious college in Toulouse, where he later taught until 1776. In 1778 he went to Paris where he met D'Alembert and Diderot, amongst others, and later became friends with young writer and diplomat Chateaubriand.
He alternated between living in Paris with his friends and life in the privacy of the countryside in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. He was appointed inspector-general of the University under Napoleon.
Joubert published nothing during his lifetime, but he wrote a copious amount of letters and filled sheets of paper and small notebooks with thoughts about the nature of human existence, literature and other topics, in a poignant, often aphoristic style. After his death his widow entrusted Chateaubriand with these notes, and in 1838, he published a selection titled Recueil des pensées de M. Joubert (Collected Thoughts of Mr. Joubert). More complete editions were to follow, also of Joubert's correspondence.
Somewhat of the Epicurean school of philosophy, Joubert enjoyed even his own suffering as he believed sickness gave subtlety to the soul.
Joubert's works have been translated into numerous languages, into English by Paul Auster, amongst others.
Joseph Joubert (7 May 1754 - 4 May 1824) was a French moralist and essayist.
JOSEPH JOUBERT (1754-1824), French moralist, was born at Montignac (Correze) on the 6th of May 1754. After completing his studies at Toulouse he spent some years there as a teacher. His delicate health proved unequal to the task, and after two years spent at home in study Joubert went to Paris at the beginning of 1778. He allied himself with the chiefs of the philosophic party, especially with Diderot, of whom he was in some sort a disciple, but his closest friendship was with the abbe de Fontanes. In 1790 he was recalled to his native place to act as juge de pain, and carried out the duties of his office with great fidelity. He had made the acquaintance of Mme de Beaumont. in a Burgundian cottage where she had taken refuge from the Terror, and it was under her inspiration that Joubert's genius was at its best. The atmosphere of serenity and affection with which she surrounded him seemed necessary to the development of what Sainte-Beuve calls his "esprit aile, ami du ciel et des hauteurs." Her death in 1803 was a great blow to him, and his literary activity, never great, declined from that time. In 1809, at the solicitation of Joseph de Bonald, he was made an inspectorgeneral of education, and his professional duties practically absorbed his interests during the rest of his life. He died on the 3rd of May 1824. His manuscripts were entrusted by his widow to Chateaubriand, who published a selection of Pens-des from them in 1838 for private circulation. A more complete edition was published by Joubert's nephew, Paul de Raynal, under the title Pensees, essais, maximes et correspondance (2 vols. 1842). A selection of letters addressed to Joubert was published in 1883. Joubert constantly strove after perfection, and the small quantity of his work was partly due to his desire to find adequate and luminous expression for his: discriminating criticism of literature and morals.
If Joubert's readers in England are not numerous, he is well known at second hand through the sympathetic essay devoted to him in Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism (1st series). See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. i.; Portraits litteraires, vol. ii.; Ind a notice by Paul de Raynal, prefixed to the edition of 1842.
Categories: JOP-JUX | French writers
   | Review of translations by Paul Auster - The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert by Joseph Joubert, An On Writing Reader's Treasury Review by Bobby Matherne |
| | Joubert's works - Gallica - Joubert, Joseph (1754-1824). Pensées, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert ; et précédés d'une notice sur sa vie, son caractère et ses travaux / recueillis et mis en ordre par M. Paul Raynal ; [publ. par A. Joubert]. 1850. |
| | ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' article - CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Joseph Joubert |
| | 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' article - Joseph Joubert - LoveToKnow 1911 |
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