Les Aventures de Télémaque
Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse is a didactic novel by François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, who in 1689 became tutor to the seven-year-old Duc de Bourgogne. It was published anonymously in 1699 and reissued in 1717 by his family. The slender plot fills out a gap in Homer's Odyssey, recounting the educational travels of Telemachus, son of Ulysses, accompanied by his tutor, Mentor, who is revealed early on in the story to be Minerva, goddess of wisdom, in disguise.
The first page of the first book of Les Aventures de Télémaque
François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, PSS, more commonly known as François Fénelon, was a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. Today, he is remembered mostly as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus, first published in 1699. He was a member of the Sulpician Fathers.
Fénelon and the Duke of Burgundy by Neuville
Bust of François Fénelon in Carennac, France