The Confessions (books I-IV) E-Book

Sabrina Zoubir

• Herausgeber: BrightSummaries.com
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 20

Beschreibung

What should we learn from Confessions (books I-IV), the famous autobiography of one of the greatest philosophers of the Enlightenment? Find out everything you need to know about this work in a complete and detailed book report.

You will find in this booklet :
- A complete summary
- A presentation of the main characters such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau's family, the Bernard family and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- An analysis of the specificities of the work: the Confessions: emotion at the heart of a novel enterprise, strategic writing, the multiple roles of readers and the theme of nature

A reference analysis to quickly understand the meaning of the work.

Leseprobe

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Geneva-based writer, philosopher and musician

•Born in 1712 in Geneva

•Died in 1778 at Ermenonville

•Some of his works:

°Julie or the New Heloise (1761), epistolary novel

°Émile ou De l'éducation (1762), treatise on education

°Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire (between 1776 and 1778), a philosophical reflection

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the most famous thinkers of the Enlightenment and one of the spiritual fathers of the French Revolution. Born in Geneva in 1712, he had an eventful youth during which he worked in various professions, including tutoring and being a copyist. In Paris, Rousseau became involved with the philosophers of the Enlightenment and gained fame in 1750 with his Discours sur les sciences et les arts, in which he developed what was to become the central theme of his thinking: man is naturally born good and happy, it is society that corrupts him and makes him unhappy. This was followed by major works such as Du contrat social (1762) and Émile ou De l'éducation (1762). Considered subversive, they were quickly condemned and banned. Rousseau was then forced into a series of exiles that kept him away from France until 1769. Suffering from a sense of persecution, he devoted the last part of his life to autobiographical works: Les Confessions (written in 1765-1767), and Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire (written between 1776 and 1778). He died in isolation in 1778.

THE CONFESSIONS (BOOKS I-IV)

An autobiography of an Enlightenment philosopher.

•Genre: autobiography

•Reference edition:Les Confessions (Livres I-IV), Paris, Gallimard, coll. « Folio classique », 1997, 272 p.

•1re edition: 1782

•Themes : loneliness, sadness, emotion, life, memory, nature, psychology

Rousseau's Confessions is a posthumously published autobiographical work, the first six books of which were written between 1765 and 1767 and the last six in 1769 and 1770. It covers the first 53 years of his life. The idea of writing his confessions had its roots in a particular context. Indeed, by denouncing in Emile