Read this when
The Consolation of Philosophy
Lost your job, your status and your good name in one go? Boethius wrote this in a prison cell waiting for execution. Your comeback reading starts here.
Who it's for
The book starts where a devastated reader is: Boethius, a former top official now jailed on what he calls false charges, is writing mournful verse and wallowing.
Feelings it meets
What it is
The Consolation of Philosophy was written by the Roman philosopher Boethius while he was imprisoned for about a year, awaiting trial and execution on a charge of treason brought under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great. In five books of alternating prose and verse, it presents a dialogue between the grieving Boethius and Lady Philosophy, a woman who personifies wisdom.
Where to find it
Public domain in older translations (e.g., H. R. James's 1897 translation), free on Project Gutenberg. Victor Watts's Penguin Classics and David Slavitt's translations are in print and in libraries (L.
Before you start
Heads up: Imprisonment facing execution.
Age: Ages 14+
Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 56
