Ninon De L'Enclos - Life And Letters - PDF Book

Ninon De L'Enclos - Life And Letters --- Note: When I see a book that looks to be important I want a decent copy to read where I can be sure that the text is is good condition, and not botched by some half-way optical character recognition. This is the public domain PDF of the book issued in 1903 by William Overton. That part is available everywhere, but I have added in PDF bookmarks of all the letters and sections, with the exception of the biography section. Of special note is the article by Saint Evremond entitled the "Doctrine of Epicurus" which he wrote in a letter to NDLE. Here are several important questions that need to be answered:

1. Did Ninon De L'Enclos represent herself to be an Epicurean?
2. Did NDLE understand Epicurus properly?
3. Did Saint Evremond understand Epicurus properly?
4. Did they understand it differently?
5. Who understood it better?

If in writing this book NDLE and/or SE was applying Epicurean principles to the issue of romantic love, then this book will have wide interest in this group. We've had good comments from several group members which indicate that is the case. If so,we need a standard copy for reference and from which to cite page numbers. This copy should provide that.

For now, please get this book from THIS LINK.

As I find time I am trying to read both from the letters and from the Introduction. This volume of the Letters might be the best available, but I find the introduction to be terrible. The writer goes on at much excessive length about his own views of philosophy and the world, and it becomes unclear whether he is speaking for himself or is accurately reporting on Ninon. I find writing like this to be totally unacceptable because I cannot trust anything that is said - never knowing if it is Ninon who said it, or this biographer who fancies that we care about his own opinion.

I found these other links to English books on Ninon, but it looks like some of the best original material as to Ninon's views on philosophy remains only in French.

Memoirs 1 (Griffin - part spurious) https://archive.org/details/memoirsninondel01svgoog

Memoirs 2 (Griffin - part spurious) https://archive.org/details/memoirsninondel00svgoog

NDLE and Her Century (Roswell) https://archive.org/details/cu31924028180101/page/n13

IEP https://www.iep.utm.edu/lenclos/