Maurice Joly

author

Maurice Joly

1831–1878

A sharp-tongued French lawyer and political writer, he is best remembered for a daring satire that attacked Napoleon III through an imagined debate between Machiavelli and Montesquieu. His work would later gain an unexpected afterlife when parts of it were plagiarized for the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

1 Audiobook

Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu ou la politique de Machiavel au XIXe Siècle par un contemporain

Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu ou la politique de Machiavel au XIXe Siècle par un contemporain

by Maurice Joly

About the author

Born in Lons-le-Saunier, France, Maurice Joly trained as a lawyer and became known as a fearless critic of political power. He wrote during the Second French Empire, when open attacks on Napoleon III could bring serious consequences.

His most famous book, Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu (1864), used a fictional conversation to expose the methods of authoritarian rule. Published anonymously in Brussels, it was quickly banned in France, and Joly was arrested and imprisoned for its publication.

Joly also worked as a journalist and continued to challenge the regime in print. Although his life ended tragically in Paris in 1878, his name endures because of the force of his political satire and because his book was later misused as a source for one of the most notorious forgeries of modern times.