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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau - Complete Kindle Edition

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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749
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EN
English
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Publication date

2012
May 16
File size

1.0 MB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0084716EK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (May 16, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 16, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 993 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 749 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #36,212 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,234 in Linguistics (Kindle Store)

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4.0 56 ratings

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (/ruːˈsoʊ/; French: [ʒɑ̃ʒak ʁuso]; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.

Rousseau's novel Emile, or On Education is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings — his Confessions, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his Reveries of a Solitary Walker — exemplified the late 18th-century movement known as the Age of Sensibility, and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing. His Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.

During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club. Rousseau was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794, 16 years after his death.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Maurice Quentin de La Tour [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Max Hocutt

The Autobiography of a Narcissistic Sociopath

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2013

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Jean Jacques Rousseau, the most celebrated literary figure and most influential political thinker of 18th century France, here tells the story of his misbegotten and shameful personal life. The story begins with an account of how, as a unmanageable boy, he was shut out of Geneva, his birthplace. It goes on to tell of the retired courtesan who took him in, made him her paramour, and had him educated. It continues by telling how, as a young man, he betrayed those unfortunate enough to put their trust in him. Then it tells how, as a literary lion, he lived as the kept man of rich Parisian women until he took up with a woman of the streets and fathered five or six children, all of whom he promptly dumped off at the local foundling home. It ends by recounting how he was kicked out of France for subverting conventional morality and religion, only to cause trouble for the amiable David Hume,who foolishly took him in. In short, this is the autobiography of a truly despicable and thoroughly contemptible genius. Why rate it so highly? Because it is one of the classics of modern literature and should be read by those influenced by his political ideas, which are as perverse as he was.

4 people found this helpful

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Harriet Brown

The Confessions of J.J. Rousseau

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2017

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I just finished reading The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

I don't understand him anymore than I did before. I guess I will have to read other books written by him.

One person found this helpful

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Will Wilkin

A very human book of the serious comedy of life

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2018

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Great book to show a world lost to modernism. Rural society and urban society, mixing of social classes, accounts of daily life and social interactions, narrated with candor that is not always self-flattering but ultimately gives me fondness for Rosseau. I love it so much I'm reading it again a few years after the first time.

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Pete Faoro

Sadly, only historically interesting

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2009

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Whatever might be said about his other works, the "Confessions" are all to frequently highly reminiscent of today's culture wherein the good things that happen to us are because we are unquestionably smart, brilliant, deserving, etc. and when things go badly it is always because other people are evil, devious, or simply stupid. Rousseau takes only rare responsibility for his own misfortunes even when they are clearly due to his personal actions. Further, he is astonishingly adept at excusing actions he can't avoid... like putting all 5 of his chilren in an orphanage at birth, even after he had reached a point when he could have raised them. There also mysterious contradiction in his tale of life, one of the most frequent being how he bounces back and forth between a permanently impaired health and feeling just fine. His philosophical works are one thing; a few hundred pages of "Oh, poor me" are quite a different thing. Were it not for my inherent compulsion to read any book I start through to the end I'd have put "Confessions" down by the time I'd slogged through a third of it.

14 people found this helpful

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Helen Dunn

A classic!

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2012

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This is a great work, always will be. Whether you like him or not, Rousseau is provocative and fascinating. This is a fine edition, and it's free--so I wouldn't dare to complain about that!

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Another Great Mind, Another Great Hypocrite

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2019

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Rousseau’s Confessions can be read for a wide variety of reasons. It provides excellent insight into the lives of the eighteenth century intelligentsia and aristocracy. It is one of the first modern memoirs. It obviously provides a more or less accurate account of much of the life of Rousseau.

But what stood out for this reader was the book’s insights into Rousseau’s character. Rousseau thought that man was by nature good and despised the Christian doctrine of original sin. For Rousseau the only way a person could be corrupted was by society.

So it’s interesting to see what kind of man Rousseau was himself. In his youth he committed libel against a fellow servant and ruined her reputation. He had no compulsions about sleeping with married women or sharing the pleasures of a purchased girl. He forced the mother of his children to give up all their progeny to the care of the state.

I do not mean to disparage or undercut the amount of good Rousseau did for freedom and democracy. But it is ironic that the great champion of man’s goodness was something of a moral monster.

If reading about the sundry adventures of an intellectual tossed about by the changing currents of the eighteenth century Francophone world seems interesting than I by no means want to dissuade from purchasing or reading the Confessions. But do not expect to be amazed by Rousseau’s example. Like some of the American founders, another great mind, another life of great hypocrisy.

3 people found this helpful

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I. S.

Horrible interpretation

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2021

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Language and words are totally wrong in its context. Horrible interpretation. Lack of knowledge in interpretation. I conjecure it was done by Artificial Inteligence. It districts desire to read.

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Joy

Rousseau

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2013

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I am curious at how this confessions would be since his full life is full of conflicts
And what kind of strong soul could survive this

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Suzie Kent

Disappointing abridged translation.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2020

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I’m a student and Les Confessions is one of my set texts. I’m reading it in the original French with this translation by my side to help me with difficult passages.

However, this is not a full translation many sentences and phrases are omitted, for instance ‘ridicule et honteux’ becomes simply ‘ridiculous’. Other instances are worse and entire sentences are omitted for instance in page 24, after ‘ without a degree of disdain mingled with terror’, these lines are missing: ‘car mon aversion pour la débauche allait jusque-là, depuis qu’allant un jour au petit Sacconex par un chemin creux, je vis des deux côtés des cavités dans la terre, où l’on me dit que ces gens-là faisaient leurs accouplements. Ce que j’avais vu de ceux des chiennes me revenait aussi toujours à l’esprit en pensant aux autres, et le cœur me soulevait à ce seul souvenir.’ That’s a lot to omit.

Some of the translations are clunky eg ‘volupté’ becomes ‘voluptuousness’, whereas the meaning is more ‘pleasure’ or ‘sensual delight’.

So, it’s fine to give you an idea of the text, but should be seen as an abridged translation which misses many of the nuances

Timothy Stedham

Average.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2020

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If you are a big fan of Rousseau then his memoir will be of interest to you, if not then all I can say is that it is well written.

Carolus

Not an easy book to read nowadays owing to a severe want ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2016

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Not an easy book to read nowadays owing to a severe want o editing. However it represents an astonishing milestone in the history of thinking. I have not finished it and am not sure whether I will.

Mr D L Evans

Better examples exist

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2013

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A book like this must be translated very well indeed to make it readable.
This is not the best translation that is in existence

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The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau - Complete Kindle Edition

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