Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 161 of 3781
YEAR 1789. · Entry 161
French
p. 32123 mars.
C’est un assés bon livre et un fort mauvais drame.
Les Athéniens y sont peints en charge et d’après les comiques et Théophraste; c’est comme si on peignoit le siècle de Louis XIV d’après Regnard et La Bruyère. Les faits des siècles qui n’existoient pas y sont attribués au siècle présent; c’est composer la peinture des mœurs de traits absolument disparates. Démosthènes y est jugé d’après Eschine; c’est comme si la vie de Corneille étoit racontée d’après l’abbé d’Aubignac. Il ne montre pas les Français semblables aux Athéniens, mais les Athéniens semblables aux Français. Il leur donne même des petits maîtres que nous n’avons eu[s] qu’un moment au temps de Dorat et de Molé.
Les traits de toutes les reparties sont presque tous émoussés dans ses traductions.
Euripide y est critiqué d’après Aristophanes.
Il nous parle souvent de jeunes Athéniens qui venoient d’entrer dans le monde.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1789.
p. 322March 23.
It is a fairly good book and a very bad drama.
The Athenians are caricatured in it, after the comic writers and Theophrastus; it is as if one were to portray the age of Louis XIV after Regnard and La Bruyère. Events from centuries that did not exist are attributed in it to the present century; this is to compose a picture of manners from utterly disparate features. Demosthenes is judged in it on Aeschines’ authority; it is as if the life of Corneille were told on the Abbé d’Aubignac’s authority. He does not show the French as resembling the Athenians, but the Athenians as resembling the French. He even gives them fops, such as we had only for a moment in the time of Dorat and Molé.
The points of all the repartees are almost all blunted in his translations.
Euripides is criticized in it on Aristophanes’ authority.
He often speaks to us of young Athenians who had just entered society.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1789. · Entry 161
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.
Historical Text and Translation
The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume I presents the entries on printed pages 32–475. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.
Rights
The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.