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- This is a light modernization of the classic Joseph Jacobs translation of The Art of Worldly Wisdom.
- The majority of the text is unchanged, and only slightly modified in an effort to provide a more accessible and easier to understand version of the classic. With the ultimate goal of getting this timeless wisdom into the hands of a larger audience. The Art of Worldly Wisdom has ton of great content - but generally speaking, the content is unfortunately often obfuscated by the combination of old English and the prevalent use of a wildly uncommon vocabulary (what do frippery, gauche, and chimerical mean? And who are Janus and Argus, or the Manilles? And so on... )
- A longer intro:
You're likely wondering why the world needs another copy of a book that already exists. But, if you've tried reading the Joseph Jacobs translation by itself, you can likely empathize with what this rendition aims to do...
The Art of Worldly Wisdom has a ton of great content - but generally speaking, the content is unfortunately obfuscated by the combination of old English and the prevalent use of a wildly uncommon vocabulary (what do frippery, gauche, and chimerical mean? And who are Janus and Argus, or the Manilles? And so on... ). During my first reading of the book, I kept having to go to my phone to look up words that I simply didn't understand, or didn't want to misunderstand. Some of their meanings could be gained through a roughly understanding of the surrounding content, but in most cases, the language often hindered my ability to read and fully grasp what the author was saying. Additionally (perhaps due to my own deficiencies in learning), there were a good amount of sentences that made no sense to me, or otherwise felt extraneous.
As I was working through the book, I kept wondering if someone had perhaps taken the effort to clean up, simplify, and slightly modernize this great text. I'd often find myself wanting to share one of the maxims with a friend, but would quickly realize that I also needed to modernize it a bit before I could send it, lest they have to google the same words I had just google'd myself. To this end, I started looking at what was out there to see if anyone had done some form of modernization - and in this process, realized that the Jacobs translation was in the public domain, having been first printed in 1892. And since no one else had done it yet, I figured this was as worthwhile cause as any. Having the pleasure of continuously learning as read through the book multiple times and made my edits.
My grand objective at the outset was to create a more accessible, and easier to comprehend version of The Art of Worldly Wisdom. I contemplated wholly re-writing each individual point, but as I began attempting that, I found that I could rarely say it better than Baltasar already had - so, instead of a full re-write, all that was really needed was some updating of the older wording, cleaning up some points of confusion (mostly through omission, as opposed to addition), and making the points a tad bit more digestible.
Many of the maxims needed no changes - to which, no changes were made. Even on the ones where I made the most adjustment, if you read them now, you likely won't notice much of a difference. It still reads in the same tone of voice and the messages come through untarnished. My changes were typically small: a word here, a word there, and so on. But on the whole, allowed for a more readable text. The goal as I was working, was that if I were to hand this book to my thirteen year old brother, he could find the points to be understandable, relatable, and be able to learn from this great book of wisdom.
It is with this goal in mind, that this rendition was created: to provide a more accessible and easier to comprehend version of the classic - to revitalize it, and get this timeless wisdom into the hands of a larger audience.
I hope you're able to find as much benefit from these pages as I was!
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