A Summer with Pascal

Antoine Compagnon, Catherine Porter

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English

Harvard Uni.Press Academi
07 May 2024

Philosophy; Theology; History of ideas; Mathematics; Physics

From an eminent scholar, a spirited introduction to one of the great polymaths in the history of Europe.

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) is best known in the English-speaking world for his contributions to mathematics and physics, with both a triangle and a law in fluid mechanics named after him. Meanwhile, the classic film My Night at Maud's popularized Pascal's wager, an invitation to faith that has inspired generations of theologians. Despite the immensity of his reputation, few read him outside French schools. In A Summer with Pascal, celebrated literary critic Antoine Compagnon opens our minds to a figure somehow both towering and ignored.

Compagnon provides a bird's-eye view of Pascal's life and significance, making this volume an ideal introduction. Still, scholars and neophytes alike will profit greatly from his masterful readings of the Pensées-a cornerstone of Western philosophy-and the Provincial Letters, in which Pascal advanced wry theological critiques of his contemporaries. The concise, taut chapters build upon one another, easing into writings often thought to be forbidding and dour. With Compagnon as our guide, these works are not just accessible but enchanting.

A Summer with Pascal brings the early modern thinker to life in the present. In an age of profound existential doubt and assaults on truth and reason, in which religion and science are so often crudely opposed, Pascal's sophisticated commitment to both challenges us to meet the world with true intellectual vigor.

By: Antoine Compagnon
Translated by: Catherine Porter
Imprint: Harvard Uni.Press Academi
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 178mm, Width: 127mm,
ISBN: 9780674295414
ISBN 10: 0674295412
Pages: 184
Publication Date: 07 May 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Antoine Compagnon, a member of the Académie française, is Blanche W. Knopf Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France. He is the author of Proust Between Two Centuries, Five Paradoxes of Modernity, A Summer with Montaigne, and numerous other books. His work has been translated into nineteen languages.

Reviews for A Summer with Pascal

"The name Blaise Pascal isn't always associated with seaside leisure. We think of him as cerebral and sanctimonious, austere and despondent...But this is to misunderstand him...Antoine Compagnon doesn't just give him another face in A Summer with Pascal: in forty short chapters that one could read between swims, he alternates between literary study and biographical anecdotes with a joyfulness that suits his subject.-- ""L'Express"""