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In Praise of Flattery, In Praise of Flattery, 0803239696, 0-8032-3969-6, 978-0-8032-3969-2, 9780803239692, Willis Goth Regier
, Stages, In Praise of Flattery, 0803213999, 0-8032-1399-9, 978-0-8032-1399-9, 9780803213999, Willis Goth Regier
, Stage
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In Praise of Flattery
hardcover
2007.
208 pp.
23 Illus., index
978-0-8032-3969-2
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 Where would we be without flattery? Hobbes deemed it an honorable duty and Meredith called it the “finest of the arts.” Alexander the Great applied it as imperial policy; Caesar and Cleopatra were masters of it; and Napoleon devoured it like candy. But flattery also has influential enemies. Cicero called flattery “the handmaid of vice” and Tacitus compared it to poison. In a work as erudite as it is entertaining, Willis Goth Regier looks into flattery as an element as flammable (and as taken for granted) as oxygen. Giving flattery light, attention, and care, Regier treats readers to hundreds of historical examples drawn from the highest social circles in politics, romance, and religion, from the courts of Byzantium and China to Paris, Rome, and Washington, DC. Because flattery must please, it is playful and creative, and Regier’s book makes the most of it, moving with light steps, now and then pausing to take in the view. Ambitious flatterers even seek to flatter God, a practice Regier treats with trepidation. This is a book for those who would understand the history, tactics, and pleasures of flattery, not least the thrill of danger. “O, flatter me, for love delights in praises.”—Shakespeare “The whole World and the Bus’ness of it, is Manag’d by Flattery and Paradox; the one sets up False Gods, and the other maintains them.”—Sir Roger L’Estrange “Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.”—Samuel Johnson “In this disorganized society, in which the passions of the people are the sole real force, authority belongs to the party that understands how to flatter.”—Hippolyte Taine  Willis Goth Regier is the director of the University of Illinois Press. He is the author of Book of the Sphinx and editor of Masterpieces of American Indian Literature, both available in Bison Books editions.
 “[A]n elegant analysis.”—Wall Street Journal “A lively, charming, and wonderfully well-read guide to the art and appreciation of ‘truth well dressed,’ Regier’s little book is the kind you will want to carry around and delve into, not to mention try out on people you love, envy, and detest.”—Bloomsbury Review “Willis Goth Regier, the erudite director of the University of Illinois Press, [has written] a short, stylish, charming and illuminating book, In Praise of Flattery. He doesn’t entirely redeem flattery and doesn’t want to, but he grants it a respectable place in everyday speech.”—Robert Fulford, Financial Post “[T]he book contains many gems: exquisite, entertaining, carefully chosen words by the obscure . . . and the mighty.”—Christine Schwartz Hartley, Bookforum "A trove of rhetorical-philosophical gems."—Publishers Weekly “[Regier] mines both ancient and modern sources to present a variety of views on flattery, and he treats the topic with good scholarship and good humor. . . . Anyone who doubts that flattery can be the subject of serious scholarship needs to read this book. Anyone who wants to read something both erudite and entertaining should do so as well. . . . Highly recommended.”—CHOICE
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