Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius

Everything arrived on time and as advertised

It took me too long to find this book. Being a devotee of Voltaire for many years while also devoted to the history and literature of 18th century France, I simply brushed aside the criticism of Rousseau by his contemporaries. A fault of mine to do so before investigation. This book has given me the full picture of the “Enlightenment” and now equipped with both sides of the story, I have drawn my own conclusion.Rousseau was taking courageous leaps into the inner world and was, as Mr. Damrosch suggested, the forerunner to modern psychology. The author has also taken a courageous leap to inform the reader of the total man, warts and all, and explained in depth the suffering Rousseau endured by breaking from the outwardly motivated thinkers of the Enlightenment. What Rousseau experienced through the portals of suffering was condemned and judged by those who did not understand his suffering to be their own. It is interesting Rousseau found Ovid’s words, “Barbarus hic ego sum quia non intelligor illus,” to be his belief. “I am taken for a barbarian here because they don’t understand me.” What is understandable is that for one to forge his way to individuality isolation is required. Isolation can sometimes cause paranoid states but, in the mid-18 century, this was not known, and many called Rousseau mad. I agree fully with Mr. Damrosch that Jean-Jacques was not mad. He kept writing, discovering, and finding his eternal moments. Reading this biography has allowed me to share a few of those moments.UpdateEighteen months after writing the above, I am ready to post my review. I have in that time read Confessions with scrutiny and I walk with Rousseau’s Reveries. I returned to the biography and reread my notes, especially the final pages where Leo Damrosch so eloquently describes those of us who, connected to the soulful and pioneering works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, are his friends. I have found this to be true.

The author is an unabashed admirer, adorer and worshipper of JJ-Rousseau, which is a pity because he knows a lot about the man that he glosses or skips over because it doesn't fit in with his theories. He sentimentalizes the author's relationship with his housekeeper-mistress, for example. It is well known that she was a shrew who dominated him completely and, given the man's indifference to sex, spent much of her time getting sturdier bucks into bed. The main crime held against Rousseau is having abandoned her five children at birth, which caused general outrage when it was revealed, long after he had become the luminary of modern education and child-rearing. It is my belief that none of the five children he abandoned were his, that she had them all by other men and he didn't want them for the same reason that many men wouldn't want to be responsible in such circumstances. This does not justify his action, of course, but it does mitigate it somewhat! He never denied they were his, at least not publicly, but this was because he was afraid of the ridicule which would be heaped on him, and perhaps also out of loyalty to the mother. The author makes no mention, also, of Therese's carrying on with village swains during the time they were in England, which was well documented at the time. I think that these sordid facts make Rousseau more interesting and understandable, and help us understand how much there is of myth in the image later generations formed of him. Apart from this and the oppressively laudatory tone, it is a colourful and entertaining book and I read it with pleasure. The author is a bit wet behind the ears, though - just like all Rousseau-freaks!

Damrosch's biography of Rousseau is a fine piece of work--complete, readable and attentive to nuance and detail. It is said that a successful biography requires a sympathetic writer, one who respects and, hopefully, reveres his subject. This is not easy for the biographer of Rousseau, who was notoriously difficult with his friends. Suspicious to the point of paranoia, he always suspects plots and betrayals. Sometimes he is available, sometimes not. Sometimes he embraces, sometimes he avoids.Rousseau's first play was entitled Narcissus, or the Self-Lover, a subject that evokes no surprises from those familiar with his life and thought. A palpitating mass of feelings, with tears flooding from his eyes, he was, nevertheless, an extremely influential writer (for good or ill).Damrosch calls him a `restless genius' and that is as positive as Rousseau probably deserves. His life was far less eventful than the intellectual and cultural currents which flowed from his writings, but he felt its moments more deeply than anyone might reasonably expect and built a career on them.The book is a pleasure to read and it includes both contemporary illustrations and photographs taken by the author. The annotation is full, but done with a light hand so as not to impede the reader. My sole disappointment was the brief attention given to Rousseau's works. They are located within the scenes of his life and they are very briefly summarized but the focus of the book falls on Rousseau's life, not his thought and not his writings. The reader who wishes more information on the latter will have to seek it elsewhere, though the rudiments are spelled out here.This is a serious biography that will be useful to scholars but accessible for the general reader.

This is an excellent book. If you really want to understand the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, this book is a must. The author makes a point of explaining Rousseau's ideas in relation to his life. What makes this book so outstanding is the fact that it is both entertaining and readable. I recommend this book very highly.

Clean edition.