The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Now for the first time completely translated into English without expurgation. Illustrated with a series of etchings by Ed. Hedouin, and two portraits.[Complete in two volumes].

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778).

About this Item

No place (Edinburgh), "Privately printed" (by Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh), 1904, 2 vols., XIX,(3),281; XV,(3),414 pag., 2 frontispiece portraits and plates with tissue-guards, printed in black and red, original unif. beige cloth with letterpress paper title-label on spine, untrimmed. = The Confessions is an autobiographical book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In the modern era, it is often published with the title The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in order to distinguish it from Saint Augustine's Confessions. Covering the first fifty-three years of Rousseau's life, up to 1765, it was completed in 1769, but not published until 1782, four years after Rousseau's death. Rousseau's work is notable as one of the first major autobiographies. Prior to the Confessions, the two great autobiographies were Augustine's own Confessions and Saint Teresa's Life of Herself. However, both of these works focused on the religious experiences of their authors; the Confessions was one of the first autobiographies in which an individual wrote of his own life mainly in terms of his worldly experiences and personal feelings. Rousseau recognized the unique nature of his work; it opens with the famous words: "I have resolved on an enterprise which has no precedent and which, once complete, will have no imitator. My purpose is to display to my kind a portrait in every way true to nature, and the man I shall portray will be myself." His example was soon followed: not long after publication, many other writers (such as Goethe, Wordsworth, Stendhal, De Quincey, Casanova and Alfieri) wrote their own autobiographies in a similar fashion. The Confessions is also noted for its detailed account of Rousseau's more humiliating and shameful moments. For instance, Rousseau recounts an incident when, while a servant, he covered up his theft of a ribbon by framing a young girl - who was working in the house - for the crime. In addition, Rousseau explains the manner in which he disposes of the five children he had with Thérèse Levasseur, all of which were abandoned at the foundling hospital. (source: wikipedia).

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Now for the first time completely translated into English without expurgation. Illustrated with a series of etchings by Ed. Hedouin, and two portraits.[Complete in two volumes].
• Binding: Hardcover