Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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English Page · Branch 1005 of 4529
Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné. · Entry 4786
French
p. 200921 août.
« Sans la langue, en un mot... »
On n’aime pas à trouver dans un livre des mots extraordinaires et qui détournent notre attention de tout le reste non pas par leur beauté, mais par leur singularité. — On n’aime pas dans un livre les mots qu’on ne pourroit pas se permettre de dire. On les tolère et on les aime dans les vieux auteurs, parce qu’ils sont là un fait de l’histoire littéraire. Ils montrent la naissance du langage. Dans les modernes, ils n’en montrent que la dépravation.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.
p. 2010August 21.
“Without language, in a word...”
One does not like to find in a book extraordinary words that divert our attention from everything else not through their beauty, but through their singularity. — One does not like words in a book that one could not allow oneself to say. One tolerates and likes them in old authors, because there they are a fact of literary history. They show the birth of language. In the moderns, they show only its corruption.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné. · Entry 4786
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 II continues the notebooks and includes seventy undated pieces. 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.