A physician with a particular interest in psychological disorders and satirist, the author published versions of his notorious "Fable of the Bees" from 1714 to 1732. Each was a defence and elaboration of his short satirical poem "The Angry Hive, 1705".
Published anonymously in 1723, "The Fable of the Bees" by Bernard Mandeville came to be regarded as the epitome of immorality. It is a naturalistic account of the mechanism of human desire. This abridged edition also includes "The Fable" and background readings from two sources.
Begins with a poem and continues with many essays and dialogues.
Bernard Mandeville was best known for The Fable of the Bees, in which he demolishes the supposed moral basis of society by a Hobbesian demonstration that civilization depends on vice