It is accompanied by the editor's preface and full-scale introduction to the work, the translator's preface, and explanatory annotations. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on the translation by Richard H. 476-526 c.e.), was a Roman philosopher, scholar, and statesman who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy while in a remote prison awaiting his execution on dubious political charges. Its author, Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (ca. The Consolation of Philosophy occupies a central place in the history of Western thought. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. This translation makes it accessible to the modern reader while losing nothing of Boethius' s poetic artistry and philosophical brilliance. The clarity of Boethius' s thought and his breadth of vision made The Consolation of Philosophy hugely popular throughout medieval Europe and his ideas suffused the thought of Chaucer and Dante.

Written in the period leading up to his brutal execution, it is a dialogue of alternating prose and verse between the ailing prisoner and his ' nurse' Philosophy, whose instruction on the nature of fortune and happiness, good and evil, fate and free will, restore his health and bring him to enlightenment. A D 475-525) was also an exceptional Greek scholar and it was to the Greek philosophers that he turned when he fell from favour and was imprisoned in Pavia. An eminent public figure under the Gothic emperor Theodoric, Boethius (c. The Consolation of Philosophy is perhaps unique in the nature and extent of its influence on Western thinking. This edition includes an introduction discussing Boethius' s life and writings, a bibliography, glossary and notes. Victor Watts' s English translation makes The Consolation of Philosophy accessible to the modern reader while losing nothing of its poetic artistry and breadth of vision. With great clarity of thought and philosophical brilliance, Boethius adopted the classical model of the dialogue to debate the vagaries of Fortune, and to explore the nature of happiness, good and evil, fate and free will. Although a Christian, it was to the pagan Greek philosophers that he turned for inspiration following his abrupt fall from grace. Boethius was an eminent public figure who had risen to great political heights in the court of King Theodoric when he was implicated in conspiracy and condemned to death. ' Why else does slippery Fortune change So much, and punishment more fit For crime oppress the innocent?' Written in prison before his brutal execution in AD 524, Boethius' s The Consolation of Philosophy is a conversation between the ailing prisoner and his ' nurse' Philosophy, whose instruction restores him to health and brings him to enlightenment.

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