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$21.97
21. Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and
 
22. A TREATISE On The SOCIAL COMPACT:Or,
$1,440.00
23. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Critical
$15.00
24. The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques
$22.50
25. The Sexual Politics of Jean-Jacques
$6.49
26. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless
 
27. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Volume One
$36.60
28. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Friend
 
29. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Volume
 
$40.95
30. Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written
$40.00
31. Discourse on the Sciences and
 
32. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2 Vols.)
$5.75
33. Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)
$33.24
34. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Advocate
$96.00
35. Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Jacques
$44.10
36. Letter to D'Alembert and Writings
 
37. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Bloom's
 
$42.40
38. Dialogues (Collected Writings
$48.40
39. Perfection and Disharmony in the
 
$35.00
40. World Authors Series - Jean-Jacques

21. Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1754
by Maurice Cranston
Paperback: 382 Pages (1991-06-25)
list price: US$23.00 -- used & new: US$21.97
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Asin: 0226118622
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Editorial Review

Book Description

In the first volume of his trilogy, noted political philosopher Maurice Cranston draws from original manuscript sources to trace Rousseau's life from his birth in provincial obscurity in Geneva, through his youthful wanderings, to his return to Geneva in 1754 as a celebrated writer and composer.

"[An] admirable biography which is as meticulous, calm, reasonable, and judicious as its subject is passionate and tumultuous."—Keith Michael Baker, Washington Post Book World

"The definitive biography, as scholarly as it is entertaining."—The Economist

"Exceptionally fresh . . . . [Cranston] seems to know exactly what his readers need to know, and thoughtfully enriches the background—both physical and intellectual—of Rousseau's youthful peregrinations . . . . He makes the first part of Rousseau's life as absorbing as a picaresque novel. His fidelity to Rousseau's ideas and to his life as it was lived is a triumph of poise."—Naomi Bliven, The New Yorker

"The most outstanding achievement of Professor Cranston's own distinguished career."—Robert Wokler, Times Literary Supplement

Maurice Cranston (1920-1993), a distinguished scholar and recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of John Locke, was professor of political science at the London School of Economics. His numerous books include The Romantic Movement and Philosophers and Pamphleteers, and translations of Rousseau's The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.
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22. A TREATISE On The SOCIAL COMPACT:Or, Principles of Political Law.
by J. J. [Jean-Jacques1712 - 1778]. Rousseau
 Hardcover: Pages (1795)

Asin: B000MZAQUW
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23. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Critical Assessments of Leading Political (Critical Assessments of Leading Political Philosophers)
Hardcover: 1600 Pages (2006-01-13)
list price: US$1,440.00 -- used & new: US$1,440.00
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Asin: 0415350832
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Book Description
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a pivotal thinker in the history of political philosophy. Making major contributions in a variety of areas, he brought his political theory to bear on subjects such as the novel, music, education, and autobiography, amongst others.

Bringing together and reprinting the vital scholarly papers on the broad range of Rousseau's thought, with a particular emphasis on his political theory, this collection includes translations of a number of influential interpretations of his work that were not previously available in English and were prepared especially for this set, such as those of Lanson, de Jouvenal, Weil, Wahl, and Baczko.

Organized thematically, and including an initial new introduction by the editor, as well as brief introductions to each individual volume, this systematic collection is undoubtedly an essential resource for a wide variety of students and scholars. ... Read more


24. The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762
by Maurice Cranston
Paperback: 413 Pages (1999-05-01)
list price: US$20.00 -- used & new: US$15.00
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Asin: 0226118649
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Book Description

In this second volume of the unparalleled exposition of Rousseau's life and works, Cranston completes and corrects the story told in Rousseau's Confessions, and offers a vivid, entirely new history of his most eventful and productive years.

"Luckily for us, Maurice Cranston's The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762 has managed to craft a highly detailed account of eight key years of Rousseau's life in such a way that we can both understand and even, on occasion, sympathize."—Olivier Bernier, Wall Street Journal

Maurice Cranston (1920-1993), a distinguished scholar and recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of John Locke, was professor of political science at the London School of Economics. His numerous books include The Romantic Movement and Philosophers and Pamphleteers, and translations of Rousseau's The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.
... Read more

25. The Sexual Politics of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by Joel Schwartz
Paperback: 203 Pages (1985-10-15)
list price: US$22.50 -- used & new: US$22.50
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Asin: 0226742245
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Joel Schwartz presents the first systematic treatment of Rousseau's understanding of the political importance of women, sexuality, and the family. Using both Rousseau's lesser-known literary works and such major writings as Emile, Julie, and The Second Discourse, he offers an original and provocative presentation of Rousseau's argument. To read Rousseau, Schwartz believes, is to enter into a profound discourse about the meaning of sexual equality and the opportunities, pitfalls, costs, and benefits that sexual relationships bestow and impose on us all. His own thoughtful reading of Rousseau opens up fresh perspectives on political philosophy and the history of sexual, masculine, and feminine psychology.
... Read more

26. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius
by Leo Damrosch
Hardcover: 576 Pages (2005-11-01)
list price: US$30.00 -- used & new: US$6.49
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Asin: 0618446966
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Book Description
The extraordinary life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the eighteenth-century literary genius who changed the course of history, traced with novelistic verve. Motherless child, failed apprentice, autodidact, impossibly odd lover, Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst unexpectedly onto the eighteenth-century scene as a literary provocateur whose works electrified readers from the start.Rousseaus impact on American social and political thought remains deep, wide, and, to some, even infuriating.Leo Damrosch beautifully mines Rousseaus books--The Social Contract, one of the greatest works on political theory and a direct influence on the French and American revolutions; Emile, a groundbreaking treatise on education; and the Confessions, which created the genre of introspective autobiography--as works still uncannily alive and provocative to us today. Damroschs triumph is to integrate the story of Rousseaus extraordinarily original writings with the tumultuous life that produced them.Rousseaus own words and those of people who knew him help create an accessible, vivid portrait of a questing man whose strangeness--as punishing and punished lover, difficult friend, and father who famously consigned his infant children to a foundling home--still fascinates.This, the first single-volume biography of Rousseau in English, is as masterfully written as it is definitive. Leo Damrosch is the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University.He has written widely on eighteenth-century writers. Praise for Jean-Jacques Rousseau "Leo Damrosch's vivid biography enables us to plunge deeply into Rousseau's singular life, conjure up its crucial encounters, retrace its twisting paths, and supplement Rousseau's own claims about himself with the detailed, often contradictory testimony of the contemporaries he so unsettled and inspired." -- Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare "These pages bring to life the Europe of the ancien regime, a desiccated, sybaritic, superstitious, oppressive world about to be terribly and fatally convulsed.And they also bring to astonishing life a great agent of that convulsion, an impossible man whose books helped to make modern life possible.Leo Damrosch not only helps us understand Rousseau, his loves and his hates, his genius and his foolishness.He makes us see Rousseau.And, as he shows again and again in this immensely enjoyable and fast-paced story, that is Rousseaus special and permanent fascination--because when we see him, we are seeing ourselves."-- Louis Menand, author of The Metaphysical Club and American Studies ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

5-0 out of 5 stars Master of no one, mastered by no one
Until Damros published this 2005 National Book Award finalist, there has not been a good single-volume biography of Rousseau in the English language. This is because Rousseau's own auto-biography, "Confessions" (1782), is so well done and the number of sources for Rousseau's first 40 years are otherwise so weak, that writing a new biography is mostly a retelling of what Rousseau has already said. The strength of Damros' biography is to summarize Rousseau's life, his evolving thinking and his major works, including historical significance and context, while weaving in some of the best scholarship available after two centuries of reflection.

His personality can best be describe as immature and "sharp at the edges". He either loved a person with all his heart, or hated them as his worst enemy. Usually, it started with the former and ended with the later, fueled by his paranoia and over-active imagination. These are traits one normally sees in a child, a black and white world view of love and hate unable to deal with the ambiguities of human weaknesses - which makes sense given Rousseau's brilliant genius combined with his abusive child-hood; lacking a mother he needed to trust someone, but at the same time could trust no one because of his abusive past. This fueled his desire for self-sufficiency and subsequent rejection of dependent relationships - thus he was naturally conflicted in an 18th C French society which was based on hierarchies of dependencies, where everyone was either the master of someone, or mastered by someone (and usually both)--Rousseau found a way to both live and preach an isolated life of self-sufficiency and inward reflection, hallmarks of the modern man. The master of no one, mastered by no one, and completely isolated from everyone. All of this is directly reflected in his works and ideas, so it is possible to fully understand Rousseau's works by understanding Rousseau the person - this biography paints the full portrait and answers many questions.

5-0 out of 5 stars Much more than just his philosophy.
This fine biography traces one of those lives that would not be credible if it were fiction. After his mother died and his father abandoned him, Rousseau wandered from place to place without receiving any formal education.He failed at just about every job he attempted.Through a course of self study, however, his genuis slowly fermented, and then, in a mind bogling 5 year period around the age of 40, produced The Social Contract plus two of the most popular and influential novels of the 17th century, Emile and Julie.

The story of his life, as told by Damrosch, serves the purpose of explaining where his philosophy came from.In Damrosch's view, Rousseau's outsider status and his ability to learn on his own provided the prespective from which he could see through the assumptions of his day and emerge with a unique view of life. Damrosch does a superb job of weaving between Rousseau's life, his personality and his philosophy.

My only slight criticism is that the substance of The Social Contract, the book for which he's best known today, fills just a few pages.I would have preferred more on that.Damrosch, a professor of literature, seems more at home analyzing the two novels and the later autobiography, Confessions, which he considers the first modern autobiography in which a person tries to look at his childhood and inner life to see how he became the person he became.Damrosch does a first rate job examining all aspects of Rousseau's thought as revealed in the novels and the autobiography.

In short, an extremely well written biography of a both intriguing and important man.

5-0 out of 5 stars Dialectic of the Enlightenment
This fascinating biography gives a concise and briskly moving snapshot of one the key figures of our contested modernity, indeed, and ironically, of the Enlightenment tradition. Before Hegel mechanically codified dialectic Rousseau lived it in his embrace and intuitive grasp of contradictions that form the unity of life. Perhaps this is the reason he is often misunderstood and why a work such as The Social Contract provokes in turn its own dialectical audience. At a time when a technocractic rendition of the Enlightenment reigns as scientism Rousseau's critique, at the fount of the Romantic movement, still speaks to us. And Rousseau first grasps what Kant will make explicit in his 'critique of pure reason': the place of freedom in the mechanical Newtonian triumph, finally a triumph over man. All in all Rousseau is simply a human puzzle and this cascade through the strange incidents is superb reading.

5-0 out of 5 stars Who is Rousseau?He is us.
I had previously read a good deal about Rousseau in general histories of the Enlightenment, and inspired by Prof. Damrosch's course for the Teaching Company, I had re-read a few of Rousseau's own works, but I was still intrigued and puzzled by his place in history and by his personality.Prof. Damrosch's book is so comprensive, insightful, and readable that my questions have now been answered to my complete satisfaction.In addition, Prof. Damrosch encourages and enables readers to compare themselves to Rousseau in terms of the unique individuality that we all share.I think that I now understand my own similarities and differences to Rousseau better than I did before.But I am not only a fellow human being but a participant in the history and culture of the modern world, which has been more profoundly affected by Rousseau than most of us realize.

4-0 out of 5 stars Philosophy rooted in personality
It is no disrespect to a biographer of Rousseau to say that his task is made considerably easier by the fact that his subject had himself, in his fifties,writtensuch a vivid and amazingly self-revealing autobiography, the famous Confessions.Especially as far as the first halfof Rousseau's life are concerned, the main task of the biographer is to recount a story that has already been written, correcting the occasional misremembering or misrepresentation, and to comment upon it.Damrosch's own writing always reads pleasantly and easily, and he also alerts us in advance to how Rousseau's descriptions of his own childhood and adolescence would inform later writings, like Julie (1761) and Émile (1762), and how much his youthful resentment about the way he was treated by social superiors would be the foundation for his later political theories.

For the first 37 years of his life, Rousseau had not revealed himself as the genius in the subtitle, though he was certainly restless: constantly on the move physically and psychologically highly labile.One wonders, in fact, how interested one would be in those 37 years if he had not shown himself a genius thereafter. I for one became a little impatient that as much as 2/5th of this long book is devoted to this early period, which by itself is not all that interesting, in which there are a lot of trivial incidents and in which we are told more about Rousseau's marginal acquaintances than perhaps we want to know. True, there emerges a good picture of the aristocratic segments of society which took Rousseau up and in which he moved with an understandable touchiness about his own status; and we also learn, for example, that Rousseau's behaviour in placing his five children to a Foundling's Hospital as soon as they were born (not left on the doorstep, a story later spread maliciously by Voltaire) was not as unusual in those days as one might think: more than a quarter of all newborn babies in Paris were abandoned in this way.Most of them were illegitimate, as Rousseau's were, and some of them, like Rousseau's later friend d'Alembert, were the illegitimate children of aristocrats.

To me the book became really interesting when Rousseau made his break-through into real originality, and from that point onwards it gains immensely in power.Damrosch's analysis of Rousseau's writings is excellent. It does several things: it explains the ideas clearly and succinctly;it shows their originality at the time and the way they have influenced later thought, and it invariably links the ideas up with Rousseau's psychology.In this respect Damrosch goes against some literary theorists who insist that one should read texts as if one knew nothing about the lives of their authors;but many of Rousseau's books deliberately reflect his personal experiences in such a thinly disguised form that such arid theories are even more than usually inappropriate.Outstanding, I think, is the analysis, near the end of the book, of theConfessions, and I was particularly taken with his comparisons betweenRousseau's autobiography and the autobiographical writings of his contemporaries, Voltaire, Diderot, Hume, Gibbon, and Benjamin Franklin.(Damrosch is an American professor, and he comments: "Contemporary American culture talks the Rousseau line but lives the Franklin life").

Damrosch's account of Rousseau's emotional, prickly and suffering personality amply bears out David Hume's famous judgment: "He has only felt, during the whole course of his life; and in this respect his sensibility rises to a pitch beyondwhat I have seen any example of, but it still gives him a more acute feeling of pain than of pleasure.He is like a man who were stript not only of his clothes but of his skin, and turned out in that situation to combat with the rude and boisterous elements, such as perpetually disturb this lower world."

The book is attractively illustrated with contemporary engravings and portraits and with photographs of places where Rousseau lived.


... Read more


27. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Volume One 1712-1758 Volume Two 1758-1778
by Jean Guehenno
 Hardcover: Pages (1966)

Asin: B000KBEB4A
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28. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Friend of Virtue
by Joseph R. Reisert
Hardcover: 211 Pages (2003-05)
list price: US$47.50 -- used & new: US$36.60
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Asin: 0801440963
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Book Description
Scholars have long debated the contribution Rousseau has made to political thought. Is he a theorist of radical individualism, a reactionary advocate for authoritarianism, or just a brilliantly paradoxical but ultimately incoherent controversialist? In the first book devoted to discussion of Rousseau's conception of virtue, Joseph R. Reisert argues that Rousseau's work offers a coherent political theory that both complements and challenges key elements of contemporary liberalism.

Drawing on his deep familiarity with Rousseau's work, Reisert maintains that Rousseau's primary concern was to discover the psychological foundations of virtue, which he understood as the strength of will needed to respect the rights of others. Reisert reconstructs the model of the human soul that underpins Rousseau's account of virtue, a model he considers superior to the alternatives conceived by Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Kant, and Rawls. Rousseau, the author explains, believed that life in modern societies undermines virtue, but that for individuals to thrive, and for free societies to endure, all would require moral education. Rousseau, who styled himself "a friend of virtue," sought to impart virtue to his readers through the examples of his literary characters Emile and Julie.

Reisert finds that Rousseau's thought poses a dilemma for modern politics: democratic governments can do little tocultivate virtue directly, yet liberal society continues to need it. The requisite moral teaching, Reisert concludes, should be provided instead by families, religious organizations, and other civil associations. ... Read more


29. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Volume 1-1712-1758, Volume 2-1758-1778
by Jean Guehenno
 Hardcover: Pages (1967)

Asin: B000WJOS1G
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30. Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings (Collected Writings of Rousseau)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Library Binding: 356 Pages (2001-12-01)
list price: US$65.00 -- used & new: US$40.95
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Asin: 1584651644
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Book Description
Published between 1762 and 1765, these writings are the last works Rousseau wrote for publication during his lifetime. Responding in each to the censorship and burning of Emile and Social Contract, Rousseau airs his views on censorship, religion, and the relation between theory and practice in politics.

The Letter to Beaumont is a response to a Pastoral Letter by Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris (also included in this volume), which attacks the religious teaching in Emile. Rousseau's response concerns the general theme of the relation between reason and revelation and contains his most explicit and boldest discussions of the Christian doctrines of creation, miracles, and original sin.

In Letters Written from the Mountain, a response to the political crisis in Rousseau's homeland of Geneva caused by a dispute over the burning of his works, Rousseau extends his discussion of Christianity and shows how the political principles of the Social Contract can be applied to a concrete constitutional crisis. One of his most important statements on the relation between political philosophy and political practice, it is accompanied by a fragmentary "History of the Government of Geneva."

Finally, "Vision of Peter of the Mountain, Called the Seer" is a humorous response to a resident of Motiers who had been inciting attacks on Rousseau during his exile there. Taking the form of a scriptural account of a vision, it is one of the rare examples of satire from Rousseau's pen and the only work he published anonymously after his decision in the early 1750s to put his name on all his published works. Within its satirical form, the "Vision" contains Rousseau's last public reflections on religious issues.

Neither the Letter to Beaumont nor the Letters Written from the Mountain has been translated into English since defective translations that appeared shortly after their appearance in French.These are the first translations of both the "History" and the "Vision." ... Read more


31. Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (First Discourse) and Polemics (Collected Writings of Rousseau)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Hardcover: 251 Pages (1992-08-15)
list price: US$60.00 -- used & new: US$40.00
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Asin: 0874515807
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Book Description
Rousseau attacks the social and political effects of the dominant forms of scientific knowledge.Contains the entire First Discourse, contemporary attacks on it, Rousseau's replies to his critics, and his summary of the debate in his preface to Narcissus. A number of these texts have never before been available in English. The First Discourse and Polemics demonstrate the continued relevance of Rousseau's thought. Whereas his critics argue for correction of the excesses and corruptions of knowledge and the sciences as sufficient, Rousseau attacks the social and political effects of the dominant forms of scientific knowledge. ... Read more


32. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2 Vols.) The Quest 1712-1758 / The Prophetic Voice 1758-1778
by Lester G. Crocker
 Hardcover: Pages (1974)

Asin: B0012GJEOO
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33. Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Paperback: 720 Pages (2000-05-18)
list price: US$12.95 -- used & new: US$5.75
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Asin: 0192822756
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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'No one can write a man's life except himself.' In his Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells the story of his life, from the formative experience of his humble childhood in Geneva, through the achievement of international fame as novelist and philosopher in Paris, to his wanderings as an exile, persecuted by governments and alienated from the world of modern civilization.In trying to explain who he was and how he came to be the object of others' admiration and abuse, Rousseau analyses with unique insight the relationship between an elusive but essential inner self and the variety of social identities he was led to adopt.The book vividly illustrates the mixture of moods and motives that underlie the writing of autobiography: defiance and vulnerability, self-exploration and denial, passion, puzzlement, and detachment.Above all, Confessions is Rousseau's search, through every resource of language, to convey what he despairs of putting into words: the personal quality of one's own existence.Download Description
An autobiography of tortured honesty that set the stage for Romanticism and revolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

5-0 out of 5 stars It is a work of a genius!!!
There will never be another Jean-Jacques Rousseau and since he lived in a period without radio and television, he is talking to us through his books. While being hailed as one of the intellectual fathers of modern democracy, Rousseau also has a very interesting personality.

I highly recommend Confessions, many lovely short stories are so vivid that a reader almost feels being there with Rousseau.

5-0 out of 5 stars A classic autobiography
Prior to the appearance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'Confessions,' there existed very few real autobiographies.The few that did exist were like St. Augustine's 'Confessions,' designed to impart a religious or moral lesson instead of to exhibit or try to justify one's life.By the time Rousseau came along, however, people had begun to see themselves as individuals, not members of a society governed based on religious or monarchical precepts.So though writing one's autobiography may be old hat now, this was a revolutionary thing in the 18th century.This autobiography is also special in that Jean-Jacques reveals himself warts and all.He doesn't gloss over faults or embarrassing incidents; he exhibits all of himself, both the good and the bad.

This book was highly recommended by the wonderful History of the Enlightenment professor I had my senior year of college, and I was thrilled to find a copy (for only 50 cents!) about 5 years later.I'd been eager to read it based on the professor's lurid descriptions of it.He told us that, among other things, Rousseau revealed that he liked to be spanked, he described his sex life, and he had a very interesting problem centered in his midsection, manifested in how he had urinary problems that always seemed to crop up whenever he was about to be integrated into society, such as one time when he was going to be given some money by the king to further his writing, but his problem struck, and he excused himself and went out into the hall, where he ended up urinating on the floor, unable to hold himself, and was laughed at by the servant-women.I was kind of disappointed that the book didn't turn out as spicy as my professor had made it out to be, but I still loved every moment of it just the same.My professor's teasers of what the book contains were just the tip of the iceberg.Among many other fascinating stories and tidbits, we also learn about such things as his extreme shyness with women he was attracted to, how he was a late bloomer who didn't lose his virginity till he was in his early twenties, how several of the women he was attracted to and had relationships with were older women (among them his first lover, Mme. de Warens, who was far more than just a lover but also his teacher, his mentor, and his patron), how he was beaten horribly by the man he was apprenticed to in Geneva as a teenager, the real story behind why he gave all 5 of his kids away to foundling hospitals, the increasing persecutions and exiles he endured, how he engaged in self-gratification, and how, as a young man, he had advances made to him by two other men (one of them a priest).Although one wonders how much paranoia might have played into these growing conspiracies against him he laments.While there is ample evidence that a number of his former friends turned against him (to say nothing of how he was thrown out of a lot of places he tried to find refuge in after 'The Social Contract' and 'Émile' were banned), it also seems kind of weird that so many people would form all of these vast far-reaching conspiracies against him out of nowhere.Still, Jean-Jacques comes across as such an interesting likeable person, whom just about anyone can relate to, that this obsession with these alleged conspiracies can be overlooked.One wishes that the book covered his whole life and not just from 1712 to 1765, since he's just such an interesting character!

My translation is the one by J.M. Cohen, which is over 50 years old now, but gets the job done in spite of a few dated spots.The basic story remains the same in spite of some dated phrases and language (e.g., does anyone under the age of 100 still use diminutive words like "authoress" or "patroness" anymore?).I also wish there had been an index, particularly since what with so many people coming and going in Jean-Jacques's life (he knew so many famous and prominent people in Enlightenment Europe!), it can be kind of hard to keep track of just who's whom.Still, minor quibbles aside, he was a truly fascinating person, and this classic work of autobiography and the Enlightenment is not to be missed.

5-0 out of 5 stars 'Feelings can only be described in terms of their effects'
My feelings when reading this unusual autobiography was one of identification with the writer - I suspect that there are behavioural and biological reasons for this, not ones that can be explained by psychology. The effect on me of the feelings Rousseau generated are indeed strange. I have immense sympathy with the man and yet I have a total lack of understanding of how he could give up his five children shortly after their births - and impose that on his partner too! He certainly fails to provide a satisfactory explanation for me. (Unless, of course, there simply weren't any children but he was unable to confess to that!)

I also felt (feelings again!) that at times Rousseau was quite paranoid. Repeatedly the disasters he presaged were less troubling than I had feared. Over and over we come across what he describes as some of his best times of life. He did have a remarkable way of holding on to the light, even when regrets and threats existed, which tended to lighten some of the darkest times.

His love of women was truly extraordinary - perhaps it was generated by his own childhood experience of being propositioned by a man; perhaps not. It was certainly love - if we believe these are true confessions - and not lust, despite what was going on in the French high society he hovered around.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me is that a very gifted philosopher can be wracked by self doubts and uncertainties.

Other recommendations:
'Diaries' - Alma Schindler (Mahler-Werfel)
'Memoirs' - Hector Berlioz
'Memoirs of a Revolutionist' - Peter Kroptkin
'Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman' - William Godwin

5-0 out of 5 stars How to understand your life-- the best autobiography ever written
Maybe you read Rousseau in college and your teacher mentioned EMILE.If you were lucky, he or she mentioned this, perhaps the greatest autobiography ever written.I read it when I was in my early twenties;it helped me to understand my feelings of loneliness, helplessness, and alienation.Years later, when I went to work for a large corporation, we had weekly meetings nominally about legal and regulatory issues, but the real "issues" on the participants' minds were the things they were talking about with each other before and after the meetings.I started reading excerpts from this book at our meetings.Everyone wanted to know what I was reading from.This was way before "book groups" became fashionable.

Rousseau was one of the most influential philosophers of the "Enlightenment", but he was also a humanitarian in the sense that he always looked for the good in others.Sometimes he found it.You will feel this when reading this wonderful book.My copy from thirty years ago has my handwritten notes in the back that I have trouble reading now,
but I know what the notes refer to, still recall the feelings I had when I made those notes, and remember how I wondered if I would ever understand how to live my life, how to relate to friends and family, how to figure out what is going on, most importantly how to deal with feelings. This book will not give you the answers, but it will give you the reassurance that your wonder and bewilderment are normal for thinking, sensitive persons.And that helps a lot. All this from one of the greatest literary artists since Plato.

You will want to read passages to your friends.Just as I did all those years ago. And compared to some celebrated "coming of age" novels, this is
the "Holy Bible".


4-0 out of 5 stars The authenticity of a personal fiction
In his essay "On Rhetoric", Stanley Corngold addresses the rhetorical signs of autobiographical elements, and the use of language to create disruption, confusion, clarity or a sense of authenticity in the text, whether or not it actually is autobiographical or "a fictive chronicle of memory". Written elements of fiction can still function as an authentically constructed memory, and here Corngold makes a distinction between the lie and the fiction; an all important distinction for reading autobiographies like Rousseau's The Confessions. Figurative writing that refers to certain authentic emotions or personal imaginations of the writer, is considered fiction, whereas the conscious addition of a written element that does not belong to the memory or experiences of the author, is a lie.
Corngold considers the imagination to be superior over fulfillment. However, when a text is confessional in nature, the justification of the own identity and self by showcasing its sincerity and integrity, and thus its contrast to the imagination, is at stake. Corngold states that the rhetoric as Rousseau uses it in his Confessions, promises a truthful description of emotions. Corngold points out that abstractions like emotions and sensations are impossible to accurately describe in words, especially when one considers the possibility of the narrator's own memory deceiving him. He discusses the Rousseau's intent when he wrote his autobiography, and concludes that the question of whether this was a cognitive or confessional intent is problematic but can be analyzed by studying Rousseau's use of rhetoric.

Rousseau focuses mainly on his memories of moods in his autobiography The Confessions. One of the defining personal aspects that guide him in this is a sense of self-loss, and Rousseau seems to attempt to find and present himself by as accurately and truthful as possible describing his past actions and the sensation that caused and were caused by them.
An air of a self-indulgent narcissitic, yet apologetic and insecure personality surrounds Rousseau's autobiography, but nevertheless it is this underlying sense of this personality that the reader gets from this work that may very well be the most truthful autobiographical element of The Confessions.
Rousseau makes a distinction between his moods at the time of writing his autobiography and the past emotions he describes in his work, but doesn't openly acknowledge the likely possibility of the present mood influencing the memory of past sensations. However, I do value Rousseau's autobiography as authentic, as the emotions that he describes in his work were indeed descriptive of the sensations he must have felt while writing down his memories. In this regard, I think that the authenticity I perceive in Rousseau's work may not be the authenticity he intended to be perceived by a reader. In my opinion, it is impossible to narrate one's memories and past emotions as they actually were, without any influence of the present perceptions and moods of the narrator, and without taking into account that moods and moments sometimes last only seconds. However, I do agree with Corngold when it comes to prioritizing the imagination over the actual fulfillment and am convinced that Rousseau's imaginations about himself were not lies, but authentic fictions of and about himself. ... Read more


34. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Advocate of Government by Consent (Philosophers of the Enlightenment)
by James R. Norton
Library Binding: 112 Pages (2005-08)
list price: US$33.25 -- used & new: US$33.24
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Asin: 1404204229
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35. Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Re-Reading the Canon Series)
Hardcover: 480 Pages (2002-09)
list price: US$96.00 -- used & new: US$96.00
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Asin: 0271022000
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Book Description
A progenitor of modern egalitarianism, communitarianism, and participatory democracy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a philosopher whose deep concern with the relationship between the domains of private domestic and public political life has made him especially interesting to feminist theorists, but also has made him very controversial. The essays in this volume, representing a wide range of feminist interpretations of Rousseau, explore the many tensions in his thought that arise from his unique combination of radical and traditional perspectives on gender relations and the state.

Among the topics addressed by the contributors are: the connections between Rousseau's political vision of the egalitarian state and his view of the "natural" role of women in the family; Rousseau's apparent fear of the actual danger and power of women; important questions Rousseau raised about child care and gender relations in individualist societies that feminists should address; the founding of republics; the nature of consent; the meaning of citizenship; and the conflation of modern universal ideals of democratic citizenship with modern masculinity, leading to the suggestion that the latter is as fragile a construction as the former.

Overall this volume makes an important contribution to a core question at the hinge of modernism and postmodernism: how modern, egalitarian notions of social contract, premised on universality and objective reason, can yet result in systematic exclusion of social groups, including women. ... Read more


36. Letter to D'Alembert and Writings for the Theater (Collected Writings of Rousseau)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Library Binding: 443 Pages (2004-01-01)
list price: US$70.00 -- used & new: US$44.10
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Asin: 1584653531
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Book Description
In 1758, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert proposed the public establishment of a theater in Geneva--and Jean-Jacques Rousseau vigorously objected. Their exchange, collected in volume ten of this acclaimed series, offers a classic debate over the political importance of the arts. As these two leading figures of the Enlightenment argue about censorship, popular versus high culture, and the proper role of women in society, their dispute signals a declaration of war that divided the Enlightenment into contending factions. These two thinkers confront the contentious issues surrounding public support for the arts through d'Alembert's original proposal, Rousseau's attack, and the first English translation of d'Alembert's response as well as correspondence relating to the exchange.

The volume also contains Rousseau's own writings for the theater, including plays and libretti for operas, most of which have never been translated into English.Among them, Le Devin du village was the most popular French opera of the eighteenth century while his late work Pygmalion is a profound meditation on the relation between an artist and his creation.This volume offers English readers a unique opportunity to appreciate Rousseau's writings for the theater as well as his attack on the theater as a public institution. ... Read more


37. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)
 Library Binding: 311 Pages (1988-01)
list price: US$34.95
Isbn: 1555462960
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38. Dialogues (Collected Writings of Rousseau)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Library Binding: 309 Pages (1990-03-15)
list price: US$60.00 -- used & new: US$42.40
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Asin: 0874514959
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Book Description
One of Rousseau's later and most puzzling works and never before available in English, this neglected autobiographical piece was the product of the philosopher's old age and sense of persecution. Long viewed simply as evidence of his growing paranoia, it consists of three dialogues between a character named "Rousseau" and one identified only as "Frenchman" who discuss the bad reputation and works of an author named "Jean-Jacques." Dialogues offers a fascinating retrospective of his literary career. ... Read more


39. Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by Jonathan Marks
Hardcover: 200 Pages (2005-06-27)
list price: US$69.00 -- used & new: US$48.40
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Asin: 052185069X
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Book Description
In Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jonathan Marks offers a new intepretation of the philosopher's thought and its place in the contemporary debate between liberals and communitarians. Against prevailing views, he argues that Rousseau's thought revolves around the natural perfection of a naturally disharmonious being. At the foundation of Rousseau's thought he finds a natural teleology that takes account of and seeks to harmonize conflicting ends. The Rousseau who emerges from this interpretation is a radical critic of liberalism who is nontheless more cautious about protecting individual freedom that his milder communitarian successors. Marks elaborates on the challenge that Rousseau poses to liberals and communitarians alike by setting up a dialogue between him and Charles Taylor, one of the most distinquished ethical and political theorists at work today. ... Read more


40. World Authors Series - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (World Authors Series)
by Conroy
 Hardcover: 171 Pages (1998-08-01)
list price: US$35.00 -- used & new: US$35.00
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Asin: 0805716165
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Book Description
Series Editors: Bernth Lindfors, University of Texas at Austin; Robert Lecker, McGill University; David O'Connell, Georgia State University; David William Foster, Arizona State University; Janet Pérez, Texas Tech University

Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works. Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading the Authors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives. Each volume features:

  • A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works
  • A brief biography of the author
  • An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author
  • Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index
  • A readable style presented in a manageable length
... Read more

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