Links:
- Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva to his Contemporaries (pdf)
Researching the background and origins of anarchism means engaging to some extent with the works of most of the so-called “utopian socialists.” In recent years, I’ve had a chance to revisit and translate works by Pierre Leroux, Charles Fourier and some more obscure figure, but hadn’t had a chance to get reacquainted — and better acquainted — with Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon.
It has not been the most appealing of side-projects, simply because the literature of Saint-Simonianism is both extensive — 47 volumes in the main 19th-century edition — confusingly organized and supplemented by rather limited bibiographical helps. And Saint-Simon’s project, however much it influenced anarchist and related tendencies in various ways, is generally at least a few steps distant from anarchism.
So this page will host some new translations — beginning with the “Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva” and a new translation of the “Parable,” linked in the sidebar — and some bibliographical aids — starting with the breakdown of the 19th-century Oeuvres, listed below.
Oeuvres de Saint-Simon & d’Enfantin
- v. 1-13. Notices historiques: 1. Saint-Simon (v. 1) 2. Enfantin (v. 1-13)
- v. 14-40. Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d’Efantin (Saint-Simon: v. 15, 18-23, 37-40; Enfantin: v. 14, 16-17, 24-36)
- v. 41-42. Doctrine Saint-Simonienne par Bazard.
- v. 43-45. Religion Saint-Simonienne. Recueil de prédications.—v. 46. Vie éternelle, par Prosper- Enfantin.
- v. 47. Religion Saint-Simonienne. Procès
