What do you think?
Rate this book
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius
The extraordinary life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the eighteenth-century literary genius who changed the course of history, traced with novelistic verve.
Motherless child, failed apprentice, autodidact, impossibly odd lover, Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst unexpectedly onto the eighteenth-century scene as a literary provocateur whose works electrified readers from the start. Rousseau’s impact on American social and political thought remains deep, wide, and, to some, even infuriating.
Leo Damrosch beautifully mines Rousseau’s books--The Social Contract, one of the greatest works on political theory and a direct influence on the French and American revolutions; Emile, a groundbreaking treatise on education; and the Confessions, which created the genre of introspective autobiography--as works still uncannily alive and provocative to us today.
Damrosch’s triumph is to integrate the story of Rousseau’s extraordinarily original writings with the tumultuous life that produced them. Rousseau’s own words and those of people who knew him help create an accessible, vivid portrait of a questing man whose strangeness--as punishing and punished lover, difficult friend, and father who famously consigned his infant children to a foundling home--still fascinates. This, the first single-volume biography of Rousseau in English, is as masterfully written as it is definitive.
Leo Damrosch is the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University. He has written widely on eighteenth-century writers.
Praise for Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"Leo Damrosch's vivid biography enables us to plunge deeply into Rousseau's singular life, conjure up its crucial encounters, retrace its twisting paths, and supplement Rousseau's own claims about himself with the detailed, often contradictory testimony of the contemporaries he so unsettled and inspired." -- Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will in the How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
"These pages bring to life the Europe of the ancien regime, a desiccated, sybaritic, superstitious, oppressive world about to be terribly and fatally convulsed. And they also bring to astonishing life a great agent of that convulsion, an impossible man whose books helped to make modern life possible. Leo Damrosch not only helps us understand Rousseau, his loves and his hates, his genius and his foolishness. He makes us see Rousseau. And, as he shows again and again in this immensely enjoyable and fast-paced story, that is Rousseau’s special and permanent fascination--because when we see him, we are seeing ourselves."-- Louis Menand, author of The Metaphysical Club and American Studies
Motherless child, failed apprentice, autodidact, impossibly odd lover, Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst unexpectedly onto the eighteenth-century scene as a literary provocateur whose works electrified readers from the start. Rousseau’s impact on American social and political thought remains deep, wide, and, to some, even infuriating.
Leo Damrosch beautifully mines Rousseau’s books--The Social Contract, one of the greatest works on political theory and a direct influence on the French and American revolutions; Emile, a groundbreaking treatise on education; and the Confessions, which created the genre of introspective autobiography--as works still uncannily alive and provocative to us today.
Damrosch’s triumph is to integrate the story of Rousseau’s extraordinarily original writings with the tumultuous life that produced them. Rousseau’s own words and those of people who knew him help create an accessible, vivid portrait of a questing man whose strangeness--as punishing and punished lover, difficult friend, and father who famously consigned his infant children to a foundling home--still fascinates. This, the first single-volume biography of Rousseau in English, is as masterfully written as it is definitive.
Leo Damrosch is the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University. He has written widely on eighteenth-century writers.
Praise for Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"Leo Damrosch's vivid biography enables us to plunge deeply into Rousseau's singular life, conjure up its crucial encounters, retrace its twisting paths, and supplement Rousseau's own claims about himself with the detailed, often contradictory testimony of the contemporaries he so unsettled and inspired." -- Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will in the How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
"These pages bring to life the Europe of the ancien regime, a desiccated, sybaritic, superstitious, oppressive world about to be terribly and fatally convulsed. And they also bring to astonishing life a great agent of that convulsion, an impossible man whose books helped to make modern life possible. Leo Damrosch not only helps us understand Rousseau, his loves and his hates, his genius and his foolishness. He makes us see Rousseau. And, as he shows again and again in this immensely enjoyable and fast-paced story, that is Rousseau’s special and permanent fascination--because when we see him, we are seeing ourselves."-- Louis Menand, author of The Metaphysical Club and American Studies
566 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
27 people are currently reading
1051 people want to read
About the author
Leo Damrosch
20 books112 followersLeo Damrosch is an American author and professor. In 2001, he was named the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University.[1] He received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. His areas of academic specialty include Romanticism, the Enlightenment, and Puritanism.[1] Damrosch's "The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus" is one of the most important recent explorations of the early history of the Society of Friends. His Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (2005) was a National Book Award finalist for nonfiction and winner of the 2006 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award for best work of nonfiction. Among his other books are "Symbol and Truth in Blake's Myth" (1980), "God's Plot and Man's Stories: Studies in the Fictional Imagination from Milton to Fielding" (1985), "Fictions of Reality in the Age of Hume and Johnson" (1987), and "Tocqueville's Discovery of America" (2010).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 9, 2023
Leo Damrosch is a talented biographer and Jean-Jaques Rousseau is a subject worthy of Damrosch’s attention. So it is no surprise that RESTLESS GENIUS was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is a very worthwhile book. But it also disappoints. This is no fault of Damrosch’. The disappointment is due entirely to Rousseau, whose life seems to have careened between episodes of humiliation, the drudgery of continual hypochondria and wild bouts of paranoia – all of which were self-inflicted.
I expected that the man who inspired generations with soaring rhetoric such as “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” would have lived a life characterized by at least a modicum of dignity. But there is nothing dignified about the life Rousseau led. He seems to have been a willful, childish and small man.
Among his many contradictions, he was known in his lifetime as a leading and highly original expert on the subject of childrearing. Yet, he had as many as four children with his common law wife (the total is unknown – which is telling), but put each of them up for adoption as newborns and severed all ties with them. He couldn’t be bothered, it seems.
His relationships with women were pathetic. Craven supplicant and selfish tyrant were roles that came naturally to him. Damrosch might have been guilty of giving more attention to this subject than warranted. There is little of interest in Rousseau’s embarrassing flirtations.
He also had an inexplicable run-in with David Hume, who had come to his rescue. Rousseau’s writing was frequently controversial with the authorities. Some of the time, his writing was banned and he himself was subject to potential arrest. During such a period in Paris, Hume offered to bring Rousseau to England where the censors were less powerful and Rousseau could write in peace. Rousseau accepted the offer, but once in England accused Hume of spying on him. Hume probably was not entirely blameless (there is evidence he screened Rousseau’s mail), but what is clear is that among their contemporaries Hume was regarded as a man of goodwill and humor, whereas Rousseau was known to be unable to maintain relationships with others without conflict and drama. Posterity has judged that Hume was the wronged party and that Rousseau’s accusations were a symptom of his chronic paranoia.
Of course, Rousseau’s greatest feud was with Voltaire, who seems to have despised Rousseau. Voltaire was France’s great man of the Enlightenment. He was convinced that civilization, culture and education would elevate humankind to our potential if only we would embrace science and free ourselves of superstition and backward political institutions. Voltaire’s point of view prevailed among the intelligentsia of France, until Rousseau began his eloquent critique of civilization and the human condition. Today, it is not clear whether the Enlightenment or the Romantic movement has had more influence on later generations. But as between Voltaire and Rousseau, there is no lack of clarity. Voltaire influenced many, but Rousseau was founder, and in many ways, the very soul of the movement that began to question and push back on the rising tide of the Enlightenment. Without Rousseau, there could be no Immanuel Kant or Karl Marx. In the pantheon of great thinkers in the Western tradition, Rousseau outshines Voltaire.
And that is the point. Though I found Rousseau the man to be a great disappointment. The author of Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, On the Social Contract and Emile will always be a man who deserves our attention. Damrosch did us a service by bringing Rousseau to life in RESTLESS GENIUS. We may as well know the man behind the brilliance, even if we do not like him.
I expected that the man who inspired generations with soaring rhetoric such as “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” would have lived a life characterized by at least a modicum of dignity. But there is nothing dignified about the life Rousseau led. He seems to have been a willful, childish and small man.
Among his many contradictions, he was known in his lifetime as a leading and highly original expert on the subject of childrearing. Yet, he had as many as four children with his common law wife (the total is unknown – which is telling), but put each of them up for adoption as newborns and severed all ties with them. He couldn’t be bothered, it seems.
His relationships with women were pathetic. Craven supplicant and selfish tyrant were roles that came naturally to him. Damrosch might have been guilty of giving more attention to this subject than warranted. There is little of interest in Rousseau’s embarrassing flirtations.
He also had an inexplicable run-in with David Hume, who had come to his rescue. Rousseau’s writing was frequently controversial with the authorities. Some of the time, his writing was banned and he himself was subject to potential arrest. During such a period in Paris, Hume offered to bring Rousseau to England where the censors were less powerful and Rousseau could write in peace. Rousseau accepted the offer, but once in England accused Hume of spying on him. Hume probably was not entirely blameless (there is evidence he screened Rousseau’s mail), but what is clear is that among their contemporaries Hume was regarded as a man of goodwill and humor, whereas Rousseau was known to be unable to maintain relationships with others without conflict and drama. Posterity has judged that Hume was the wronged party and that Rousseau’s accusations were a symptom of his chronic paranoia.
Of course, Rousseau’s greatest feud was with Voltaire, who seems to have despised Rousseau. Voltaire was France’s great man of the Enlightenment. He was convinced that civilization, culture and education would elevate humankind to our potential if only we would embrace science and free ourselves of superstition and backward political institutions. Voltaire’s point of view prevailed among the intelligentsia of France, until Rousseau began his eloquent critique of civilization and the human condition. Today, it is not clear whether the Enlightenment or the Romantic movement has had more influence on later generations. But as between Voltaire and Rousseau, there is no lack of clarity. Voltaire influenced many, but Rousseau was founder, and in many ways, the very soul of the movement that began to question and push back on the rising tide of the Enlightenment. Without Rousseau, there could be no Immanuel Kant or Karl Marx. In the pantheon of great thinkers in the Western tradition, Rousseau outshines Voltaire.
And that is the point. Though I found Rousseau the man to be a great disappointment. The author of Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, On the Social Contract and Emile will always be a man who deserves our attention. Damrosch did us a service by bringing Rousseau to life in RESTLESS GENIUS. We may as well know the man behind the brilliance, even if we do not like him.
November 12, 2014
This book and I have completed a no-fault divorce. I was not the reader the book thought I was, and it was not the book I thought it was, and that's fine. We're both okay with it.
I thought I was getting more about the 'genius,' and this book really wanted to give me more about the 'restless.' Damrosch writes perfect non-fiction prose, clear and engaging. He paints (as they say) Rousseau's times and his personality, the houses he lived in and women he loved (if that's the right word), he pokes a bit of fun, but is generally sympathetic. I did not know, before reading this, that JJR just *was* a picaro, which makes me rethink a lot of 18th century novels. Maybe all the wanderings aren't plot devices--maybe that really was how a large number of people experienced their lives?
The book did not, however, deal with Rousseau's ideas in any depth at all. What I wanted to read about was the great contradiction in Rousseau's thought: that society ought to be a contract between a bunch of people who are unsocialized and, therefore, incapable of making contracts. This is one of the great philosophical conundrums of modernity, but this book... well, it doesn't even bring it up.
I thought we'd make it work, but this break up is probably for the best. You're pretty, "Restless Genius," but you don't really have the personality I thought you did.
I thought I was getting more about the 'genius,' and this book really wanted to give me more about the 'restless.' Damrosch writes perfect non-fiction prose, clear and engaging. He paints (as they say) Rousseau's times and his personality, the houses he lived in and women he loved (if that's the right word), he pokes a bit of fun, but is generally sympathetic. I did not know, before reading this, that JJR just *was* a picaro, which makes me rethink a lot of 18th century novels. Maybe all the wanderings aren't plot devices--maybe that really was how a large number of people experienced their lives?
The book did not, however, deal with Rousseau's ideas in any depth at all. What I wanted to read about was the great contradiction in Rousseau's thought: that society ought to be a contract between a bunch of people who are unsocialized and, therefore, incapable of making contracts. This is one of the great philosophical conundrums of modernity, but this book... well, it doesn't even bring it up.
I thought we'd make it work, but this break up is probably for the best. You're pretty, "Restless Genius," but you don't really have the personality I thought you did.
November 3, 2025
a good book for people who really are into rousseau, his life and opinions. i realized i am not.
i guess once ur a voltaire girlie ur always a voltaire girlie.
i guess once ur a voltaire girlie ur always a voltaire girlie.
July 21, 2019
"Önyargılarla dolu bir insan olmaktansa, pardokslarla dolu bir insan olmayı tercih ederim." diyerek aslında hayatını özetleyen Jean-Jacques Rousseau'nun hayatını anlatan Leo Damrosh'un aynı adlı eseri ünlü filozofun yaşadıklarıyla davranışlarını psikolojik açıdan birbirlerine bağlayarak Rousseau'nun "İtiraflar"ının izinden giden okuduğum en net ve en akıcı biyografilerden biri. Annesinin doğumda ölmesi üzerine başta babası olmak üzere annesinin ölümünden sorumlu tutularak büyüyen Rousseau'nun hayatı aslında oldukça üzücü. Babasının sürülmesi üzerine yalnız başına büyüyen ünlü filozofun devamlı kendini babasına beğendirme çabası ve güçlü kadınlara karşı fazlasıyla utangaç tavır sergilemesiyle ne kadar izole bir çocukluk geçirdiğini anlıyorsunuz. Bakımını üstlenen kadınlardan dayak yemekten hoşlanan Rousseau'nun kaldığı bir misafirhanede bir siyahi adam tarafından taciz edilmesiyle cinselliğe ve homoseksüelliğe karşıt görüşler beslediğini görüyoruz. Fazlasıyla çekingen olmakla beraber babası sebebiyle insanlara güvenemeyen ve onları küçümseyen Rousseau'nun kusurluluk şemasıyla kendini topluma ait olmadığını belirtmesi, zaman zaman hırsızlık yapması ve doğan çocuklarının hepsini yetimhaneye bırakması da yazarın ruhsal durumunu az çok özetliyor.
Müziğe karşı ilgisi olmasına rağmen bir yerden sonra edebiyata yönelerek Voltaire, Diderot ve Hume gibi yazarlarla tanışma fırsatı yakalayan, başlarda harika başlayıp fakat sonlara doğru kötü bir şekilde noktalanan ilişkileri ise Rousseau'nun paranoyak tutumuna bağlı. Buna rağmen yaşadığı olayları yazılarına aktarması sebebiyle romantik edebiyatın doğumuna sebep olan Rousseau'nun "Julie" adlı ilk eseri edebiyat tarihinde oldukça büyük bir öneme sahip. İlk önemli felsefi eseri ise zamanında çıraklık yapmasının da etkisiyle ezilmesine sebebiyet veren olayları göz önünde bulundurarak Hobbes'un aksine insanın yaratılıştan kötü olmadığını; fakat toplumun onu kötüleştirdiğini iddia ettiği "Söylev". Aslında "Söylev"le toplumun bozulmasının sebebini bilim ve sanata bağlayan Rousseau daha sonraları bu görüşünü "toplum"a çeviriyor. Uygarlığın ne kadar yıkıcı olduğunun altını çizen ilk "Söylev"den sonra odak noktasına özgürlüğe çeviren Rousseau, ikinci söylevle eşitsizlik üzerinde durmaya başlıyor ve "Toplum Sözleşmesi" başyapıtıyla dünyanın kaderini değiştiriyor. Bütün bireylerin eşit olduğunu ve egemenliğin halka ait olduğunu belirten yapıtıyla devlet yönetimi konusunda çığır açan düşünceleri okuyucuya sunan yazarın 30 sene sonra Fransız Devrimi'ni ateşlediğini belirtmek gerek. Sınıf farkı yüzünden karısıyla bir türlü evlenemeyen ve ilişkileri ortaya çıkmaması için çocuklarını yetimhaneye bırakmak zorunda kalması da eserin mimarı niteliğindeki olaylardan biri.
Fransa'dan sürülmesine neden olan "Toplum Sözleşmesi"nin yanında "Emile" adlı eserine de parantez açmakta fayda var ünlü yazarın. Locke'un eğitim ile ilgili görüşlerini bir tık ileri götürerek "bir saygı, bir utanç"tan otoriteden korkmayan bir görüşe çeken Rousseau, ezber bilgiye karşı çıkarak, Spinoza'nın andıran düşünceleriyle deizmin temellerini atıyor. Kendi çocuklarını yetimhaneye bırakmasına rağmen çocuk eğitimiyle ilgili kitap yazması tabii ki yazarın çelişkilerle dolu yapısını bir kez daha okuyucuya hatırlatıyor. İlerleyen zamanlarda pişmanlığı defalarca dilen getiren Rousseau'nun telafisi niteliğindeki "Emile", aynı zamanda duygusal ilişkilere bağlı modern aile görüşünü ve mantıktan çok duygusal eğitim sistemini ortaya koyuyor. Ve son olarak "İtiraflar"la utanç verici anılarına kadar her şeyi kaleme olarak kim olduğunu ve insanların önce kendilerini tanımaları gerektiğini bizlere sunan ünlü filozofun modern otobiyografi türüne ön ayak ve Freud'a ilham olduğunu da unutmamak lazım. Görüşleri ve eserleriyle sadece edebiyat tarihini değil dünyanın kaderini de derinden etkileyen Rousseau'yu daha iyi anlayabilmek için kesinlikle okunması gereken bir eser.
05.07.2019
İstanbul, Türkiye
Alp Turgut
http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...
Müziğe karşı ilgisi olmasına rağmen bir yerden sonra edebiyata yönelerek Voltaire, Diderot ve Hume gibi yazarlarla tanışma fırsatı yakalayan, başlarda harika başlayıp fakat sonlara doğru kötü bir şekilde noktalanan ilişkileri ise Rousseau'nun paranoyak tutumuna bağlı. Buna rağmen yaşadığı olayları yazılarına aktarması sebebiyle romantik edebiyatın doğumuna sebep olan Rousseau'nun "Julie" adlı ilk eseri edebiyat tarihinde oldukça büyük bir öneme sahip. İlk önemli felsefi eseri ise zamanında çıraklık yapmasının da etkisiyle ezilmesine sebebiyet veren olayları göz önünde bulundurarak Hobbes'un aksine insanın yaratılıştan kötü olmadığını; fakat toplumun onu kötüleştirdiğini iddia ettiği "Söylev". Aslında "Söylev"le toplumun bozulmasının sebebini bilim ve sanata bağlayan Rousseau daha sonraları bu görüşünü "toplum"a çeviriyor. Uygarlığın ne kadar yıkıcı olduğunun altını çizen ilk "Söylev"den sonra odak noktasına özgürlüğe çeviren Rousseau, ikinci söylevle eşitsizlik üzerinde durmaya başlıyor ve "Toplum Sözleşmesi" başyapıtıyla dünyanın kaderini değiştiriyor. Bütün bireylerin eşit olduğunu ve egemenliğin halka ait olduğunu belirten yapıtıyla devlet yönetimi konusunda çığır açan düşünceleri okuyucuya sunan yazarın 30 sene sonra Fransız Devrimi'ni ateşlediğini belirtmek gerek. Sınıf farkı yüzünden karısıyla bir türlü evlenemeyen ve ilişkileri ortaya çıkmaması için çocuklarını yetimhaneye bırakmak zorunda kalması da eserin mimarı niteliğindeki olaylardan biri.
Fransa'dan sürülmesine neden olan "Toplum Sözleşmesi"nin yanında "Emile" adlı eserine de parantez açmakta fayda var ünlü yazarın. Locke'un eğitim ile ilgili görüşlerini bir tık ileri götürerek "bir saygı, bir utanç"tan otoriteden korkmayan bir görüşe çeken Rousseau, ezber bilgiye karşı çıkarak, Spinoza'nın andıran düşünceleriyle deizmin temellerini atıyor. Kendi çocuklarını yetimhaneye bırakmasına rağmen çocuk eğitimiyle ilgili kitap yazması tabii ki yazarın çelişkilerle dolu yapısını bir kez daha okuyucuya hatırlatıyor. İlerleyen zamanlarda pişmanlığı defalarca dilen getiren Rousseau'nun telafisi niteliğindeki "Emile", aynı zamanda duygusal ilişkilere bağlı modern aile görüşünü ve mantıktan çok duygusal eğitim sistemini ortaya koyuyor. Ve son olarak "İtiraflar"la utanç verici anılarına kadar her şeyi kaleme olarak kim olduğunu ve insanların önce kendilerini tanımaları gerektiğini bizlere sunan ünlü filozofun modern otobiyografi türüne ön ayak ve Freud'a ilham olduğunu da unutmamak lazım. Görüşleri ve eserleriyle sadece edebiyat tarihini değil dünyanın kaderini de derinden etkileyen Rousseau'yu daha iyi anlayabilmek için kesinlikle okunması gereken bir eser.
05.07.2019
İstanbul, Türkiye
Alp Turgut
http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...
August 10, 2008
An engaging biography. The author rightly emphasizes the stunning originality of Rousseau's thought, which constitutes no philosophical system or the product of systematic inquiry. It consists, rather, of reflections on the issues and topics that happened to interest him or that he felt compelled to examine. He formulated new, and enduring, perspectives on nearly every subject he considered. "Emile", for example, remains the point of departure for any progressive theory of education. Even Freud acknowledged that psychoanalysis began with Rousseau. Rousseau invented the modern autobiography. On and on.
The author explores the pattern of Rousseau's life, his way of being in the world, that enabled and sustained his independence of mind, the very source of his originality: his pursuit of solitude, his persistent rejection of patronage, his rejection of any relationship that required or even suggested a need to compromise authenticity and personal autonomy. A very difficult way to live indeed. Yet Rousseau acknowledged that to live differently was nothing less than impossible.
The author explores the pattern of Rousseau's life, his way of being in the world, that enabled and sustained his independence of mind, the very source of his originality: his pursuit of solitude, his persistent rejection of patronage, his rejection of any relationship that required or even suggested a need to compromise authenticity and personal autonomy. A very difficult way to live indeed. Yet Rousseau acknowledged that to live differently was nothing less than impossible.
August 31, 2014
This biography actually deserves 4.5 stars. It is a wonderfully engaging and thorough account that makes a very good case that Rousseau, among his contemporaries, is the thinker most present in our current self-consciousness. 'Our' meaning those of us who have inherited the enlightenment and the discourse and institutions of political thought generated during this period.
Damrosch is an excellent guide and writer. The story of Rousseau's life is quite amazing, and the author weaves in relevant psychological analyses and translates myriad secondary sources to illuminate the subject very well, without being cumbersome in his prose. The accomplishments of Rousseau given his mercurial personality and spartan determination to be authentic are incredible. He may not have been that admirable in some of his actions, or even despicable, but it is not easy to dismiss his character as entirely wanting of moral integrity. It's a fascinating story that inflected my understanding of Rousseau's theories with depth and appreciation. (Disclaimer: I teach Rousseau and the history of political philosophy).
Given this disclaimer, my only critique is that I thought the theories of Rousseau could have been explored a bit more thoroughly and with greater intricacy. This quality is something I think Ray Monk achieved with his biography of Wittgenstein.
However, this is a fantastic and incredibly learned text that I was lucky enough to read parts of in Paris and Provence.
Damrosch is an excellent guide and writer. The story of Rousseau's life is quite amazing, and the author weaves in relevant psychological analyses and translates myriad secondary sources to illuminate the subject very well, without being cumbersome in his prose. The accomplishments of Rousseau given his mercurial personality and spartan determination to be authentic are incredible. He may not have been that admirable in some of his actions, or even despicable, but it is not easy to dismiss his character as entirely wanting of moral integrity. It's a fascinating story that inflected my understanding of Rousseau's theories with depth and appreciation. (Disclaimer: I teach Rousseau and the history of political philosophy).
Given this disclaimer, my only critique is that I thought the theories of Rousseau could have been explored a bit more thoroughly and with greater intricacy. This quality is something I think Ray Monk achieved with his biography of Wittgenstein.
However, this is a fantastic and incredibly learned text that I was lucky enough to read parts of in Paris and Provence.
August 2, 2013
Damrosch has written a insightful and brilliant book about Rousseau. He doesn't sugarcoat Rousseau's difficult life, but treats Rousseau with honesty and respect, acknowledging his weaknesses as well as his strengths. I knew nothing much about Rousseau, and I was very surprised by some of his actions. And the jealousies and vendettas among the famous people around Rousseau is mind-boggling. An eye-opening book, to say the least. I highly recommend it.
September 10, 2012
I usually stick to biographies on Supreme Court justices or presidents so this was a nice change. I love reading Rousseau's work and it was nice to get to know the man a bit more. Even if he happened to not be very likable or inspiring.
September 22, 2010
500 well-written biograhpical pages of an original thinker. I wish it were my book because there were so many passages I wanted to underline. Highly recommend.
April 22, 2023
To be extremely self-conscious is a liability. Combine it with hyper-sensitivity and misery is usually the result. Rousseau had an extra helping of both traits. It made him frequently miserable, almost always uncomfortable and, in a torment paired with great intellect, a genius who provided many insights into the new world of individualism he did much to open.
I recently read his Emile. The contrast between the controlled, calm and masterful way in which Rousseau wrote and his dire and frantic emotional life, is a surprise.
A remark by David Hume that Rousseau was not just a man without a coat, but without a skin as well, captures JJR perfectly. Perpetually uncomfortable, particularly in social situations, the torment is evident in his philosophy of the corruption of individual man by society. Rousseau tried to identify the real self hiding under the mask put on to please others. In contrast, author Damrosch tells of the method of Ben Franklin, another 18th century thinker, who advised his fellow men to embrace the socially accepted persona that would ease the way to success in dealing with others. For Rousseau, this would be the height of dishonesty, a rejection of Shakespeare's "to thine own self be true".
How things have changed since 1750! We now have every guy and his relatives on TV broadcasting to the world their personal problems and anguish. No personal secret is too awful to keep from the public. "Reality" shows go so far as to create fake realities so that individuals can emote to each other with a completely false intimacy and openness that is a mockery of what Rousseau was after. For all of the sense of personal revelation, we've only changed our idea of what the public wants rather than looking for the truth of self that Rousseau recommended.
Deeply hurt by even the smallest slights, he wrote his Confessions in part to head off criticism (and defuse the pain) that might be made by others. Never staying in one place for a long time, Rousseau acted like a hunted man, which at times he was, yet unable to escape the most dedicated hunter of all, himself. Scarcely able to support himself, he depended on the good will of an assortment of wealthy benefactors, both male and female, to provide him with places to stay. Yet no place remained comfortable, primarily because there was no place of comfort in his mind.
While Rousseau was sensitive to his every emotion, he was usually obtuse regarding others. Gestures of friendship or the simple acts from others with no deep content were often wildly misinterpreted or rejected. Paranoia increasingly occupied his thoughts and his outrageous accusations against those who cared about him unsurprisingly drove many away. Nothing was too insignificant to prevent his elaboration of it into fantasy that often shocked those around him. It's not hard to understand how people could get tired of being misinterpreted.
But he opened the door to the human psyche and made it possible to see how we all share existential issues that lay bare our essential human equality behind the suporficial divisions created by wealth and status. It wasn't long before the French Revolution heralded JJR as a prophet.
Leo Damrosch knows his subject. There are times when the reading is a bit slow but it's hard to imagine a more interesting person to follow through life than JJR.
The word shocking has lost almost all meaning in a world that makes millionaires of people who make a profession of shock, such as Lady Gaga and Howard Stern. As a result it's almost impossible to portray to the modern reader the impact of Rousseau on his times. He was hyper-sensitive and we are de-sensitized.
I recently read his Emile. The contrast between the controlled, calm and masterful way in which Rousseau wrote and his dire and frantic emotional life, is a surprise.
A remark by David Hume that Rousseau was not just a man without a coat, but without a skin as well, captures JJR perfectly. Perpetually uncomfortable, particularly in social situations, the torment is evident in his philosophy of the corruption of individual man by society. Rousseau tried to identify the real self hiding under the mask put on to please others. In contrast, author Damrosch tells of the method of Ben Franklin, another 18th century thinker, who advised his fellow men to embrace the socially accepted persona that would ease the way to success in dealing with others. For Rousseau, this would be the height of dishonesty, a rejection of Shakespeare's "to thine own self be true".
How things have changed since 1750! We now have every guy and his relatives on TV broadcasting to the world their personal problems and anguish. No personal secret is too awful to keep from the public. "Reality" shows go so far as to create fake realities so that individuals can emote to each other with a completely false intimacy and openness that is a mockery of what Rousseau was after. For all of the sense of personal revelation, we've only changed our idea of what the public wants rather than looking for the truth of self that Rousseau recommended.
Deeply hurt by even the smallest slights, he wrote his Confessions in part to head off criticism (and defuse the pain) that might be made by others. Never staying in one place for a long time, Rousseau acted like a hunted man, which at times he was, yet unable to escape the most dedicated hunter of all, himself. Scarcely able to support himself, he depended on the good will of an assortment of wealthy benefactors, both male and female, to provide him with places to stay. Yet no place remained comfortable, primarily because there was no place of comfort in his mind.
While Rousseau was sensitive to his every emotion, he was usually obtuse regarding others. Gestures of friendship or the simple acts from others with no deep content were often wildly misinterpreted or rejected. Paranoia increasingly occupied his thoughts and his outrageous accusations against those who cared about him unsurprisingly drove many away. Nothing was too insignificant to prevent his elaboration of it into fantasy that often shocked those around him. It's not hard to understand how people could get tired of being misinterpreted.
But he opened the door to the human psyche and made it possible to see how we all share existential issues that lay bare our essential human equality behind the suporficial divisions created by wealth and status. It wasn't long before the French Revolution heralded JJR as a prophet.
Leo Damrosch knows his subject. There are times when the reading is a bit slow but it's hard to imagine a more interesting person to follow through life than JJR.
The word shocking has lost almost all meaning in a world that makes millionaires of people who make a profession of shock, such as Lady Gaga and Howard Stern. As a result it's almost impossible to portray to the modern reader the impact of Rousseau on his times. He was hyper-sensitive and we are de-sensitized.
December 27, 2012
Leo Damrosch is indeed sympathetic toward Rousseau. Of course, unless he or she has an ax to grind, that goes without saying for a biographer; after all, the dead have no money to pay for their portraits to be painted in words.
Damrosch portrays Monsieur Rousseau sympathetically, but, nonetheless, warts and all.
Many of those warts stem from his childhood. A mother who died shortly after his birth, with a father on the outs with his in-laws and sliding downward socially and financially, were the starters for his Geneva early development. Further traumas resulted in a lifelong fetish for punishment, along with a strong revulsion to human sexuality. (Other than with his Parisian mistress of his mid-30s and onward, by the time he was 40, Rousseau was almost virginal.)
At the same time, being poor, from a disrupted family with Rousseau eventually fobbed off by his father, he did not have much of a chance for formal intellectual development. Nor did he shine in any early apprenticeship. (Beyond Rousseau's well-known aversion to outwardly imposed discipline, Damrosch suspects he might have had dyslexia.)
But, from this, he was eventually (like a Swiss-French Abraham Lincoln) able to fulfill his drive toward greatness in learning and practical philosophical thinking.
Damrosch goes on to portray how he stood his ground against Diderot, Voltaire and others, often at great personal sacrifice and picking up more warts and flaws along the way.
The author of "The Social Contract" greatly influenced our Founding Fathers. This volume makes clear why he should be a known influence for more Americans today.
Some national reviewers suspect that this sympathy gets too much in the way of a neutral portrait. One example some people might cite is Damrosch's wondering whether Rousseau actually committed five childen by his Paris mistress to a foundling home, noting that Rousseau himeself, while mentioning five children once, only goes into any detail -- brief as it is -- about one, the first. (And perhaps his hang-ups about sexuality may lend some credence to this.)
No matter; Damrosch still points out the contractions between this and Rousseau later establishing himself as a child-rearing expert.
Nor does Damrosch overlook Rousseau's other failings, such as not giving his juvenile benefactor, Mme de Warens, a promised full share of his inheritance. Some of these failings do come out in his Confessions, his greatest work.
Augustine may have invented the genre of biography with his own Confessiona; however, Rousseau invented the modern genre, with its psychologizing and self-analysis in a way that an Augustine could never even have understood.
Perhaps that is part of why Rousseau has been handled with tongs -- or with hammers -- by many of the more conservative elements of American intelligentsia. (Note the claim that he is the intellectual forefather of Freud, Marx and Nietzsche.)
First, that's not entirely true; second, to the degree it is true, he's not their only forebearer; and third, what if he is? (Besides, he's really better seen as the forefather of French existentialism, above all, Camus.)
Rousseau deserves to be read and understood on his own, and Damrosch lets us do that.
Damrosch portrays Monsieur Rousseau sympathetically, but, nonetheless, warts and all.
Many of those warts stem from his childhood. A mother who died shortly after his birth, with a father on the outs with his in-laws and sliding downward socially and financially, were the starters for his Geneva early development. Further traumas resulted in a lifelong fetish for punishment, along with a strong revulsion to human sexuality. (Other than with his Parisian mistress of his mid-30s and onward, by the time he was 40, Rousseau was almost virginal.)
At the same time, being poor, from a disrupted family with Rousseau eventually fobbed off by his father, he did not have much of a chance for formal intellectual development. Nor did he shine in any early apprenticeship. (Beyond Rousseau's well-known aversion to outwardly imposed discipline, Damrosch suspects he might have had dyslexia.)
But, from this, he was eventually (like a Swiss-French Abraham Lincoln) able to fulfill his drive toward greatness in learning and practical philosophical thinking.
Damrosch goes on to portray how he stood his ground against Diderot, Voltaire and others, often at great personal sacrifice and picking up more warts and flaws along the way.
The author of "The Social Contract" greatly influenced our Founding Fathers. This volume makes clear why he should be a known influence for more Americans today.
Some national reviewers suspect that this sympathy gets too much in the way of a neutral portrait. One example some people might cite is Damrosch's wondering whether Rousseau actually committed five childen by his Paris mistress to a foundling home, noting that Rousseau himeself, while mentioning five children once, only goes into any detail -- brief as it is -- about one, the first. (And perhaps his hang-ups about sexuality may lend some credence to this.)
No matter; Damrosch still points out the contractions between this and Rousseau later establishing himself as a child-rearing expert.
Nor does Damrosch overlook Rousseau's other failings, such as not giving his juvenile benefactor, Mme de Warens, a promised full share of his inheritance. Some of these failings do come out in his Confessions, his greatest work.
Augustine may have invented the genre of biography with his own Confessiona; however, Rousseau invented the modern genre, with its psychologizing and self-analysis in a way that an Augustine could never even have understood.
Perhaps that is part of why Rousseau has been handled with tongs -- or with hammers -- by many of the more conservative elements of American intelligentsia. (Note the claim that he is the intellectual forefather of Freud, Marx and Nietzsche.)
First, that's not entirely true; second, to the degree it is true, he's not their only forebearer; and third, what if he is? (Besides, he's really better seen as the forefather of French existentialism, above all, Camus.)
Rousseau deserves to be read and understood on his own, and Damrosch lets us do that.
August 21, 2016
I was hoping for more of an examination of Rousseau's thought in this book, but while there was a bit of that it really is more of a straightforward retelling of his life. There is still some merit in that, both as historical record and exploration of the way his own experience as a perennial outsider informed his later philosophy. Rousseau aptly noted how modern society has the perverse effect of making people seek the approval of people they hate, while forcing them to sublimate their true feelings and opinions so deeply that they become alienated even from themselves. Modern civilization, in his telling, is the secular version of the fall from the Garden of Eden - the socialization of people that alienated them from their true selves and their ability to enjoy the world for what it is. By inculcating in us an inescapable need to measure ourselves in comparison to others, it prevents us from enjoying and experiencing the world as it actually is. The damage this has done to humanity is irreversible, but it can be somehow at least be ameliorated through the development of a "collective" thought and opinion that allowed people to escape being differentiated and measured against one another. It's interesting to see the echoes of this thinking in later French books like Society of the Spectacle.
Rousseau himself had a strange and generally sympathetic life. He felt himself to be an outsider in his world and condemned it even while being celebrated by it. He was wracked with illness (mostly imagined) throughout his lifetime and spent it as a wanderer. Unlike many others of similar genius he lived to see his work become famous.
I didn't find the book to be particularly well written and feel there was a missed opportunity to interweave his thoughts more directly with his biography. Nonetheless there are a few gems worth digging into and for those into advanced studies of Rousseau's philosophy this is probably worth looking into. The author does manage to convey what a sensitive person Rousseau was, and despite the chasm of hundreds of years passed since his death, he is able to open up a window into what Rousseau's life had been like and what kind of world he inhabited. That in itself is an admirable feat, even if the end product is not for everyone.
Rousseau himself had a strange and generally sympathetic life. He felt himself to be an outsider in his world and condemned it even while being celebrated by it. He was wracked with illness (mostly imagined) throughout his lifetime and spent it as a wanderer. Unlike many others of similar genius he lived to see his work become famous.
I didn't find the book to be particularly well written and feel there was a missed opportunity to interweave his thoughts more directly with his biography. Nonetheless there are a few gems worth digging into and for those into advanced studies of Rousseau's philosophy this is probably worth looking into. The author does manage to convey what a sensitive person Rousseau was, and despite the chasm of hundreds of years passed since his death, he is able to open up a window into what Rousseau's life had been like and what kind of world he inhabited. That in itself is an admirable feat, even if the end product is not for everyone.
November 16, 2008
This wasn’t the most riveting biography I’ve read, but well worth the time. A knowledge of Rousseau is key to understanding the origin of so many things about the modern world, including Romantic notions of imagination, personality, and nature; psychological theories that emphasize the importance of childhood experience; anthropological studies of man *au naturel*; and rational criticism of the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Prior to this year, the only thing I could remember about him was that he was a subject of that trite poem by Blake, “Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau.” I don’t know Blake’s biography well, but I can only guess that Blake knew something of Voltaire and lumped Rousseau together with him as that other famous French philosophe. From the biography, and the major works I’ve read so far (the two Discourses and The Social Contract), Rousseau has nothing in common with Voltaire, as far as satire goes, on top of the fact that they despised each other. Rousseau alienated the philosophes from the very beginning of his career by criticizing the Enlightenment (Discourse on the Arts and the Sciences) and was one of the few to defend belief in a Christian God. If Blake actually did read Rousseau, he didn’t read him very well.
There was one other observation I couldn’t help making. A quick look at my book list on Goodreads would tell you that I’m a fan of Wendell Berry, and it seems that Rousseau is a huge influence on him. Although I’ve never read a direct reference to Rousseau in any of Berry’s writings, the philosophical influence is unmistakable and thorough.
There was one other observation I couldn’t help making. A quick look at my book list on Goodreads would tell you that I’m a fan of Wendell Berry, and it seems that Rousseau is a huge influence on him. Although I’ve never read a direct reference to Rousseau in any of Berry’s writings, the philosophical influence is unmistakable and thorough.
July 7, 2025
I came across Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius by Leo Damrosch in 2019, and in all honesty, it remains one of the finest biographical explorations of Rousseau I’ve ever read. Damrosch doesn’t just recount Rousseau’s life—he reconstructs the contradictions, passions, and paradoxes that made him both a visionary and a deeply troubled soul.
What struck me was how intimately the book navigates Rousseau’s emotional landscape—his obsession with authenticity, his paranoia, his tortured relationships, and his relentless self-examination. Damrosch treats Rousseau with both admiration and skepticism, a balance that's incredibly rare in biographies of thinkers who are either deified or demonised.
Reading it felt like sitting across the table from Rousseau himself—feverish, brilliant, pacing, pouring out ideas that would later shape revolutions, modern childhood education, and Romantic individualism.
It was 2019, but Rousseau’s anxiety about modernity and alienation felt eerily relevant—like he could’ve been tweeting through a breakdown, or writing long-form Substack essays on “why civilization sucks and I need to go live in the woods.” Damrosch, however, keeps it grounded—no sensationalism, just deeply human portraiture.
In the pantheon of Enlightenment biographies, this one stands apart. It doesn’t just explain Rousseau—it haunts you with him.
What struck me was how intimately the book navigates Rousseau’s emotional landscape—his obsession with authenticity, his paranoia, his tortured relationships, and his relentless self-examination. Damrosch treats Rousseau with both admiration and skepticism, a balance that's incredibly rare in biographies of thinkers who are either deified or demonised.
Reading it felt like sitting across the table from Rousseau himself—feverish, brilliant, pacing, pouring out ideas that would later shape revolutions, modern childhood education, and Romantic individualism.
It was 2019, but Rousseau’s anxiety about modernity and alienation felt eerily relevant—like he could’ve been tweeting through a breakdown, or writing long-form Substack essays on “why civilization sucks and I need to go live in the woods.” Damrosch, however, keeps it grounded—no sensationalism, just deeply human portraiture.
In the pantheon of Enlightenment biographies, this one stands apart. It doesn’t just explain Rousseau—it haunts you with him.
February 20, 2012
This is a beautifully written, sensitive and thoughtful biography of Rousseau. Damrosch admires Rousseau's Confessions and uses them to structure much of the book. He gives such a convincing portrait of Rousseau's personality that I felt as though I knew the philosopher. At the same time Damrosch avoids simple psychological reductions and assesses what is known and not known about Rousseau. He presents clear summaries of Rousseau's works, shows how they were received and argues convincingly for their importance in the emergence of 'modern' ways of thought. It is a long book, but I had trouble putting it down until I finished it.
August 5, 2024
AN EXCELLENT BIOGRAPHY OF THE CONTROVERSIAL ENLIGHTENMENT WRITER
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment, as well as a composer; Leo Damrosch is Professor of Literature at Harvard, as well as the author of books such as 'Tocqueville's Discovery of America,' etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2005 book, "In a series of amazingly original books... he developed a political theory that deeply influenced the American Founding Fathers and the French revolutionaries... and advanced a concept of education that remains challenging and inspiring to this day... My intention is to integrate the story of Rousseau's extraordinary original writings with the story of the tumultuous life that produced them... and to suggest why his ideas have had such electrifying effect." (Pg. 1, 4-5)
He records that "What Rousseau remembered most vividly from the time [in his youth] were a few incidents that he described ... as crucial in his psychic development. No previous writer of memoirs would have included stories like these, and it was he who literally taught the world to think of such experiences as forming the personality. The first is the famous ... spanking. One day the boys had committed some minor offense and were both spanked by Mlle. Lambercier. To his surprise Jean-Jacques enjoyed it... Mlle Lambercier doubtless perceived by some sign that the punishment wasn't serving its purpose and declared that she would give it up." (Pg. 28-29) Damrosch suggests that "[Rousseau] was certainly more squeamish about sex in general... than most of the Enlightenment figures who were his contemporaries." (Pg. 54) He adds, "Fixated on spanking, he felt a compulsion to expose his rear end to strangers, and one day he actually did so near a well where a group of young women was collected." (Pg. 64)
Noting that Rousseau abandoned as many as five of the children he fathered with a seamstress named Thérèse Levasseur to foundling homes, he comments, "This action seems staggering today, in light of who Rousseau was and what he became, as well as in light of his own history of abandonment as a child. But the practice was not uncommon... For a long time he successfully kept what he had done secret from everyone except a few friends, but by the time it came out, he had become famous as the author of a book on bringing up children, and he had a lot of explaining to do." (Pg. 191)
Damrosch recounts, "the most famous writer in all Europe... was working insidiuously against Rousseau. Voltaire had never believed that Rousseau was a significant writer. Far from seeing him as a rival, he despised him as a minor disciple who had become a nuisance." (Pg. 389) Later, he comments, "Like Augustine, from whom he borrowed his title (though he never mentions the earlier Confessions of St. Augustine: The Original, Classic Text by Augustine Bishop of Hippo, His Autobiography and Conversion Story), he would acknowledge his sins, but unlike Augustine he would also prove his essential goodness." (Pg. 435) Overall, "Far from being victimized by his friends, Rousseau was exceptionally fortunate in them, but he could never really believe it." (Pg. 452)
This is an excellent, very insightful look at the man behind the ideas and the books, and will be of considerable value to anyone interested in Rousseau's life.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment, as well as a composer; Leo Damrosch is Professor of Literature at Harvard, as well as the author of books such as 'Tocqueville's Discovery of America,' etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2005 book, "In a series of amazingly original books... he developed a political theory that deeply influenced the American Founding Fathers and the French revolutionaries... and advanced a concept of education that remains challenging and inspiring to this day... My intention is to integrate the story of Rousseau's extraordinary original writings with the story of the tumultuous life that produced them... and to suggest why his ideas have had such electrifying effect." (Pg. 1, 4-5)
He records that "What Rousseau remembered most vividly from the time [in his youth] were a few incidents that he described ... as crucial in his psychic development. No previous writer of memoirs would have included stories like these, and it was he who literally taught the world to think of such experiences as forming the personality. The first is the famous ... spanking. One day the boys had committed some minor offense and were both spanked by Mlle. Lambercier. To his surprise Jean-Jacques enjoyed it... Mlle Lambercier doubtless perceived by some sign that the punishment wasn't serving its purpose and declared that she would give it up." (Pg. 28-29) Damrosch suggests that "[Rousseau] was certainly more squeamish about sex in general... than most of the Enlightenment figures who were his contemporaries." (Pg. 54) He adds, "Fixated on spanking, he felt a compulsion to expose his rear end to strangers, and one day he actually did so near a well where a group of young women was collected." (Pg. 64)
Noting that Rousseau abandoned as many as five of the children he fathered with a seamstress named Thérèse Levasseur to foundling homes, he comments, "This action seems staggering today, in light of who Rousseau was and what he became, as well as in light of his own history of abandonment as a child. But the practice was not uncommon... For a long time he successfully kept what he had done secret from everyone except a few friends, but by the time it came out, he had become famous as the author of a book on bringing up children, and he had a lot of explaining to do." (Pg. 191)
Damrosch recounts, "the most famous writer in all Europe... was working insidiuously against Rousseau. Voltaire had never believed that Rousseau was a significant writer. Far from seeing him as a rival, he despised him as a minor disciple who had become a nuisance." (Pg. 389) Later, he comments, "Like Augustine, from whom he borrowed his title (though he never mentions the earlier Confessions of St. Augustine: The Original, Classic Text by Augustine Bishop of Hippo, His Autobiography and Conversion Story), he would acknowledge his sins, but unlike Augustine he would also prove his essential goodness." (Pg. 435) Overall, "Far from being victimized by his friends, Rousseau was exceptionally fortunate in them, but he could never really believe it." (Pg. 452)
This is an excellent, very insightful look at the man behind the ideas and the books, and will be of considerable value to anyone interested in Rousseau's life.
April 13, 2020
Bu kitabı okumadan önce J.J. Rousseau’yu Aydınlanmacı bir düşünür olarak biliyordum, meğer değilmiş... Diderot, Voltaire gibi aydınlanmanın başını çekmiş olanların haksız yergilerine maruz kalmış. Rousseau kurulu düzenin aksayan yönleriyle insana kendisini, en önemlisi insanın öncelikle doğal bir varlık olduğu gerçeğini insanlara göstermeye çalışmış. Yönetime halkın iradesinin yansımasının gerekliliğini, sosyal eşitsizliğin temelinde yatan adaletsizliği sorgulamayı gündeme getirmiştir. Çocuk eğitiminin nasıl olması gerektiğine dikkati çekmiş, benliğin gizemlerini sorgulayarak Freud’e öncülük etmiştir... J.C. Lewis’e göre de antropolojinin de kurucusudur. Fakat kitapta önemli bir hata var, dip notlar numaralanmamış.. bu hata da okumayı oldukça zorlaştırıyor..
September 25, 2018
There is so much in this 494 page biography that it's simply a good starting point to read on Rousseau's life. My plan is to do either a short or a feature on a period in his life. If I could my dream would be to do a trilogy on the man's life. He was such an interesting character who embraced fame but at the same time hated it. He also saw plots against him when there wasn't any. A great read!
November 1, 2021
Sympathetic yet objective. Well researched and beautifully written. Well illustrated. Binding in signatures, but glued rather than sewn, which is always a bit disappointing in an otherwise quality book.
Want to read
February 24, 2021Alicia client
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2024
Big fan of Leo and his biographies. 9 beans out 10.
August 28, 2017
Other reviewers are correct that this fun biography is light on philosophy, but there are so many places to explore that. This is a "life" of Jean-Jacques, who I haven't studied in forty years. Good fun.
April 16, 2013
I selected this because of its National Book Award recognition. The winners and nominees I've read have all been good and this one did not disappoint. I mention this to say that you don't need a background in Rousseau or French history to understand and enjoy this book. Leo Damrosch provides a solid background and so that his analysis is easily accessible.
The book explains how Rousseau's life informs his writing. Rousseau's years alone, his highly charged emotions, his co-dependence and later co-dependent, Therese, shaped his views on power, government, economic dependence, and raising children.
As with so many thinkers of his time, he cannot see women as equals. His neediness, exemplified in both his son to parent relationship with Mme de Warens and that of sister/housekeeper/lover/wife Therese show that while he can break the mold in so much other thinking, an equal role for women is a bridge too far.
Damrosch documents the influence of Emile and how far it extended and credits the The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete as the first autobiography (a concept new in an of itself) to explore an inner life. He spends considerably less time on the most famous work, the The Social Contract and Discourses.
This book joins Rousseau's life story with past and present interpretations of his work and the changing acceptance of his ideas in his time and ours. I highly recommend it.
The book explains how Rousseau's life informs his writing. Rousseau's years alone, his highly charged emotions, his co-dependence and later co-dependent, Therese, shaped his views on power, government, economic dependence, and raising children.
As with so many thinkers of his time, he cannot see women as equals. His neediness, exemplified in both his son to parent relationship with Mme de Warens and that of sister/housekeeper/lover/wife Therese show that while he can break the mold in so much other thinking, an equal role for women is a bridge too far.
Damrosch documents the influence of Emile and how far it extended and credits the The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete as the first autobiography (a concept new in an of itself) to explore an inner life. He spends considerably less time on the most famous work, the The Social Contract and Discourses.
This book joins Rousseau's life story with past and present interpretations of his work and the changing acceptance of his ideas in his time and ours. I highly recommend it.
October 27, 2014
It is difficult to review this book without wanting to critique Rousseau rather than the biographer. I was so annoyed by Rousseau's life, as opposed to my reaction to his obvious genius in Reveries of a Solitary Walker, that I must admit to thinking that the book was rather bad. However, time seemed to speed up towards the end of Rousseau's story, and the biographer redeemed himself despite not having done anything poorly in the first place. In the latter parts of the book, the comparison with Benjamin Franklin is exceptional and puts into chronological perspective the Old and New Worlds. I must now read the Confessions and compare it to Franklin's Autobiography to make sense out of this account of Rousseau's life. I must admit to expecting more of the man, but he did not create the posthumous legend and cannot be blamed anymore than the biographer can be blamed for Rousseau's habits that had me annoyed to such an extent that it took me close to two years to finish the book.
December 28, 2016
This book was a bit of up and down for me. I was so fascinated by Rousseau and felt a kinship with his wanderings and musings and writings that the book was something I wanted to keep reading. Sometimes, however, the writing was a little dry and heavy on facts without as much narrative, so that made the book a slog at times. All that being said, this was a super interesting book that introduced me to a man whose writings I hope to become more familiar with in the future.
August 24, 2011
Well-researched and readable biography of Rousseau, whom I really didn't know too much about. It made me want to read some of his work. He was a major influence on Western culture in the past 200 years, so it's interesting to see what forces shaped him and how his contemporaries viewed him.
March 23, 2007
Really interesting for anyone who wants to know and appreciate better Rousseau. Made me want to read more of his literature (and he has never been one of my favorites).
January 27, 2008
wonderful book connecting the different parts of Rousseau's work and his strange life. gives a powerful sense of his utterly extraordinary creativity.
Read
September 23, 2010Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius by Leo Damrosch (2007)
December 12, 2012
Güzel ve başarılı ve öğretici
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews