Written around 524 AD while Boethius awaited execution, The Consolation of Philosophy stages a dialogue between the imprisoned author and a personified Lady Philosophy, who guides him from despair toward an understanding of fortune, happiness, virtue, and divine providence. Composed in alternating prose and verse, it fuses classical and Christian thought into one of the most widely read books of the Middle Ages.
This free EPUB edition has been carefully cleaned and formatted for modern e-readers. Its meditations on the fickleness of fortune and the nature of true good influenced medieval and Renaissance writers for over a thousand years, and continue to reward readers today.