Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II1812 · Entry 6302

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Facing Pages · Branch 2521 of 4529

1812 · Entry 6302

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 5041

Balzac. Son emphase est souvent un jeu et même n’est jamais qu’un jeu, car il n’en est jamais la duppe. Ceux qui la censurent gravement et amèrement sont des gens qui n’entendent pas la plaisanterie […]érieuse et qui ne scavent pas distinguer l’hyperbole de l’exagération ou l’emphase de l’enflure et la rhétorique d’un homme de la sincérité de son personnage. L’hyperbole est une figure; l’emphase est comme un ton de voix, un son; l’enflure est une maladie et l’exagération un vice dans le jugement, dans le sentiment, dans le goût. Le reste appartient à l’art, non à l’artiste. Et le commencement de l’art et la nouveauté du travail et ses ouvrages, exigeoit un tel procédé.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: 1812

p. 5042

Balzac. His emphasis is often a game, and indeed is never anything but a game, for he is never its dupe. Those who censure it gravely and bitterly are people who do not understand [serious] joking and cannot distinguish hyperbole from exaggeration, or emphasis from swelling, and a man’s rhetoric from the sincerity of his character. Hyperbole is a figure; emphasis is like a tone of voice, a sound; swelling is a disease and exaggeration a vice in judgment, in feeling, in taste. The rest belongs to art, not to the artist. And the beginning of art and the novelty of labor and its works, required such a procedure.

T65.The movement from often to never anything but remains, with repeated game and never its dupe. Emphasis here denotes rhetorical pomp or elevation, not simply stress on a syllable or point; the period emphase has that broader delivery sense. Swelling renders enflure and retains the explicit bodily disease image. Joubert’s own distinctions among figure, voice or sound, disease and defect govern the four terms. [Serious] renders contextual sérieuse from […]érieuse. The final du travail et ses ouvrages and singular exigeoit remain irregular: English preserves the coordination and comma, while past-tense required does not mark singular or plural agreement. Labor renders travail; its renders ses, whose possessor is not explicitly settled, and his is another possible reading. No missing French de or corrected verb is supplied.

T411.The first letter before érieuse survives only as isolated lower fragments; sérieuse is a contextual completion only. In the ordinary line divisions of sincérité and exagération, the next-line r retains recognizable stem and shoulder portions and remains a qualified complete reading. Duppe has the printed double p. The left-edge words jeu, et, ou, comme and reste are abraded but retain identifiable shapes; detached marks outside the text column do not establish extra words. Scavent retains its spelling. The repeated emphase, jeu, comparisons and multiple restrictive negatives remain. The final coordination visibly reads du travail et ses ouvrages, followed by singular exigeoit; neither a missing de nor a plural verb is supplied.

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.