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Julie, or the New Heloise: Letters of Two Lovers Who Live in a Small Town at the Foot of the Alps (Collected Writings of Rousseau)Paperback– October 15, 1997
"Alternating Current" by Octavio Paz A scintillating thinker and a prescient voice on emerging world culture, Paz reveals himself here as “a man of electrical passions, paradoxical visions, alternating currents of thoughts, and feeling that runs hot but never cold. Learn more | See related books
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Product Details
Series: Collected Writings of Rousseau (Book 6)
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: Dartmouth; Trans. from the French edition (October 15, 1997)
It is a pity that Julie, or the New Heloise is neither better known nor more widely read. It is one of the great novels. Rousseau may be most famous as a philosopher and Julie includes many philosophical passages, discussing issues such as education, virtue and religion, but he shows in this novel that he was both a fine writer and an able storyteller. The ideas he puts into the mouths of his characters are interesting, the debates they engage in are continually fascinating, but it is the story he tells which is truly memorable for it is deeply moving. The novel consists of a series of letters some quite short, some extending to many pages. The main characters are Julie d'Étange, a young Swiss girl of noble birth and her tutor who has the pseudonym St. Preux. They begin an affair and fall deeply in love. It is this initial relationship of pupil to teacher, developing into passion, which is supposed to remind the reader of the medieval lovers Abelard and Heloise. Moreover both pairs of lovers face difficulties and opposition from family. They experience the joys of love and suffer because of it. These parallels however, should not be overestimated, Rousseau is not retelling an old story and Julie's life is quite different from that of Heloise. The story has numerous twists and turns and many surprises along the way. Other characters interact with the young lovers write letters to them and to each other. Gradually over the course of a long novel one begins to care about these people. It is here that Rousseau's skill as a writer is most evident. I found myself emotionally involved in the story of Julie and St. Preux in a way which was quite unexpected. By the end I had felt much joy and not a little sorrow and had been touched by a novel that can bring forth tears.Read more ›
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Julie; or, The New Heloise is an epistolary novel of forbidden love and seduction that serves as vehicle for many of Rousseau's ideas on morality, religion, and social justice. The subtitle refers to the medieval lovers Abelard and Héloïse, whose published letters tell a similar tale.
The story takes place in the 18th century in western Switzerland in various locations around Lake Geneva. Julie d'Étange is the beautiful and well-mannered daughter of a baron. The Baron d'Étange hires a tutor to complete her daughter's education, but the two fall hopelessly in love. The tutor's name is eventually given as St. Preux, but we are told this is an assumed name to conceal his identity in their secret correspondence. Julie's saucy cousin and best friend Claire is her confidante and the lovers' go-between. Eventually, after St. Preux has seduced Julie, the two make their passion known to Julie's father. In a rage, he banishes St. Preux from his house, declaring that Julie will marry a man of his choosing who is suitable to her station in society.
The novel continues for some dozen years with correspondence between Julie, St. Preux, Claire, and a friend of St. Preux's. Among the subjects addressed are the decadence of Parisian society, the contrast between Catholicism and Calvinism, and Rousseau's ideas on such diverse topics as aristocracy, household management, education and gardening. The author uses footnotes to make sure we know when one of his characters is expressing an opinion with which he agrees or disagrees.
The principal theme of the novel is of a morality of conscience rather than one of convention, and Julie is its exemplar. Rousseau was at this time a Calvinist, but an unconventional one.Read more ›
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If one wishes a tour through Rousseau's philosophy, a view of life and times in the mid-18th century, and a sampling of Rousseau's almost unbelievable clarity of thought and skill of presentation, one must read this work.
And a beautiful love story to boot!
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Sounds weird to read a love story written by such an illustrious personage. But it is. It is the impossible love between a teacher and his student. It is a love that is effected through an exchange of letters. Totally outdated, by the way it is written, it is interesting to see the approaches that of love makes the philosopher.
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