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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
60 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My own confesssion,
By A Customer
This review is from: Confessions (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) (Hardcover)
Rousseau's Confessions had been on my book shelf for at least two years before I got motivated to read it. I had started it a few times, but never got beyond the first chapter. I read quite alot, though, and the Confessions seemed to pop up everywhere, in History, Philosophy, and especially in articles on influences in Literature. Flipping through it, it seemed dry and the passages boring and out-of date. But I told myself I must read it, if only to better understand the references that kept drawing from it.
Once I got past the first chapter, I found I simply could not put it down. Admittedly, I had the extra advantage of knowing alot about the period in history and the life of Rousseau himself, but that wasn't the magic of the book. It was Rousseau himself who seemed to come alive through the pages. The tortured honesty on every page which excited and shocked me kept me up late every night until I was finished. There were times I simply had to put the book down, catch my breath a little, and think, "Oh My God! I can't believe it!" After, I realized I had finished one of the best reading experiences of my life. It ranked right up there with "The Red and The Black", "Les Mis", "Crime and Punishment" and "Anna Karenina". This book will live through the ages, I had read a hundred times but dismissed it. I only hope you are more trustful than I.
40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sure, Jacques...sure,
By Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (COMMUNITY FORUM 04) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Confessions (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)
There are certain books that are cornerstones in your life. This is one of mine. A lot of the Romantic self-centerdness that marks my character can be traced directly back to this guy. But then again, whatever my expansive vision and love of variety and the vagaries of human nature can also be traced back to this cynical, but at the same time genial soul. Rousseau, like Voltaire and Diderot, his contemporaries, could look upon his fellow man and himself with both a frown and a smile. He claims at the outset of the work that he is going to show you himself as he honestly is, warts and all. Don't believe him! But don't turn your back on him either, or dismiss him as a liar! You would be denying yourself the company of one of the most charming alluring reconteurs in all of literature, should you do so. Monsieur Rousseau absolutely loves talking about himself. That sounds like a recipe for boredom, I know. But the trouble is, he's got such a fascinating subject. He knew everyone who was anyone in the 18th century. The women, in particular, were the actual movers and shakers of fin de siecle France. They were figures who presided over literary salons when there actually were literary salons. Madame de Stael is only one matron who looms large in the account. France was basically ruled by powerful and cunning women in that era. Rousseau was there, mentally recording every intimate bon mot and detail. Then there is his infectious, expansive nature to win you over! Try as you might, self centered as the man is, you can't help liking the guy! He is the ultimate Romantic, in the best sense of the word. He believes in his soul that mankind is noble, that we were put here on earth to enact a divine plan for the benefit of all. That the French Revolution would show a different, Hobbesian side to his theory doesn't really diminish his optimistic, humanistic influence on the Romantic movement and ultimately 19th century literature, in general. He's one of those seminal figures without whom Goethe, the Romantic poets, Blake, Emerson, Whitman, etc. wouldn't have been possible. This is a great book. Liar, hedger, whatever, you really will get to know this character in all his colors, subterfuges, moods, etc. Love him or hate him, you will have to admit that he's like no one you have ever met. Unfortunately. BEK
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A startlingly honest,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Confessions (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)
I'm thrilled to see Amazon books' celebration of Rousseau's
birthday because his writings not only transformed
Enlightenment thought, but also prefigured the emergence of
Romanticism in the nineteenth century. But Rousseau's Confessions
is not just a work for historians. This work is stunning in
its honesty, even to a jaded twentieth-century reader. The
psychological insight is remarkable: As the narrative
progresses, Rousseau's suspicious nature moves into a
chilling paranoia, yet one cannot help but feel compassion
for such a brilliant and beleagered man. Even paranoids
have enemies, and Rousseau certainly had plenty, and his
Confessions provide an insiders view of the Enlightenment,
with all the rivalries and quarrels.
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