Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
The Confessions of Rousseau - cover

The Confessions of Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Publisher: BookRix

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau is notable as one of the first major autobiographies. Prior to his writing the Confessions, the two great autobiographies were Augustine's own Confessions and Saint Teresa's Life of Herself. Both of these works, however, 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. Not long after publication, many other writers (such as Goethe, Wordsworth and De Quincey) wrote their own similarly styled autobiographies.

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 his five children, whom he had out of wedlock with Thérèse Levasseur.
Available since: 12/19/2023.
Print length: 1093 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Hallelujah Junction - Composing an American Life - cover

    Hallelujah Junction - Composing...

    John Adams

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    John Adams is one of the most respected and loved of contemporary composers, and "he has won his eminence fair and square: he has aimed high, he has addressed life as it is lived now, and he has found a language that makes sense to a wide audience" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker). Now, in Hallelujah Junction, he incisively relates his life story, from his childhood to his early studies in classical composition amid the musical and social ferment of the 1960s, from his landmark minimalist innovations to his controversial "docu-operas." Adams offers a no-holds-barred portrait of the rich musical scene of 1970s California, and of his contemporaries and colleagues, including John Cage, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. He describes the process of writing, rehearsing, and performing his renowned works, as well as both the pleasures and the challenges of writing serious music in a country and a time largely preoccupied with pop culture.Hallelujah Junction is a thoughtful and original memoir that will appeal to both longtime Adams fans and newcomers to contemporary music. Not since Leonard Bernstein's Findings has an eminent composer so candidly and accessibly explored his life and work. This searching self-portrait offers not only a glimpse into the work and world of one of our leading artists, but also an intimate look at one of the most exciting chapters in contemporary culture.
    Show book
  • The Facts in the Case of Monsieur Valdemar - From their pens to your ears genius in every story - cover

    The Facts in the Case of...

    Edgar Allan Poe

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Edgar Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on 19th January 1809. His father abandoned his family the following year and within a year his mother had died leaving him an orphan.   
He was taken in by the Allan family but never formally adopted although he now referred to himself as Edgar Allan Poe.  His father alternatively spoiled or chastised him and tension was frequent over gambling debts and monies for his education.  His university years to study ancient and modern languages was cut short by lack of money and he enlisted as a private in the army claiming he was 22, it is more probable he was 18. After 2 years he obtained a discharge in order to take up an appointment at the military academy, West Point, where he failed to become an officer. 
Poe had released his 1st poetry volume in 1827 and after his 3rd turned to prose and placing short stories in several magazines and journals.  At age 26 he obtained a licence to marry his cousin.  She was a mere 13 but they stayed together until her death from tuberculosis 11 years after. 
In January 1845 ‘The Raven’ was published and became an instant classic.  Thereafter followed the prose works for which he is now so rightly famed as a master of the mysterious and the macabre. 
Edgar Allan Poe died at the tragically early age of 40 on 7th October 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as ‘congestion of the brain’ or ‘cerebral inflammation’, common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism but the actual cause of death remains a mystery.
    Show book
  • Marrying Mongolia - A Memoir - cover

    Marrying Mongolia - A Memoir

    Sas Carey

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    "A child of the ’50’s, Sas Carey was raised to marry and rear children. She did that, but with the care and morals shared by her parents, along with a lust for life, learned she could follow her own path, strewn with heartache, yet leading to transcendence. Her story is one of empowerment. In overcoming expectations, Sas becomes a healer of body and soul, learning that she need not devote herself to a single person to substantiate herself."Sas Carey has climbed mountains, swum across lakes and rivers, and slept on the ground of three continents. She has ridden planes, trains, cars, bikes, boats, horses, camels, and reindeer. A Quaker, Sas is an award-winning documentary film director, author, spiritual healer, registered nurse, mother, and grandmother. Relaxing in her gazebo in Vermont, she dreams of her next adventure.
    Show book
  • A Rare Recording of Harvey Milk - cover

    A Rare Recording of Harvey Milk

    Harvey Milk

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 - November 27, 1978), born in Woodmere, NY, was a US Navy veteran, businessman, and Democrat politician who, on November 8, 1977, became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. A year later, on November 27, 1978, Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by disgruntled former City Supervisor Dan White in the offices of San Francisco's City Hall. The following audio recording is from a 1978 tv interview.
    Show book
  • Unroyal - Three Women Who Shook the Monarchy - cover

    Unroyal - Three Women Who Shook...

    Sarah Lyall

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Wallis, Diana and Meghan: Three Wives, One Narrative 
 
One was a married American socialite who embarked on a scandalous affair with the future king of England. Another was an aristocratic ingenue whose winsome charm captured the world’s imagination. And the third was a thirty-something actress whose outspokenness put her on a collision course with the British public. The marriages of Wallis Simpson, Diana Spencer, and Meghan Markle into the British royal family sparked a series of crises that at times seemed to threaten the future of the monarchy itself. In Unroyal, veteran New York Times reporter and former London correspondent Sarah Lyall revisits how each royal wife threatened the stability of—and was ultimately rejected by—this most ancient and opaque of institutions.  
 
Using archival material and interviews with experts like the bestselling author Tina Brown, the royal biographer Andrew Morton, and the social commentator and broadcaster Afua Hirsch, Lyall’s audio documentary examines three pivotal TV interviews in which each woman pushed up against the official royal narrative: Wallis in 1970, Diana in 1995, and Meghan in 2021. Lyall describes the differences and highlights the similarities between the women at these three flexion points to examine the endless codependent dance between the monarchy, the public, and the news media and to shed fresh light on the fraught intersection of power, fame, and family politics in an institution torn between tradition and modernization.  
 
Narrated by the author against a beguiling soundscape of contemporaneous news footage and a spectral score, Unroyal blends the probing inquisition of You’re Wrong About with the historical intrigue of The Crown, serving both neophytes and obsessives a delectable royal feast for the ears.
    Show book
  • Mere Karnaamey - cover

    Mere Karnaamey

    Janmeja Singh Johal

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    “Mere Karnaamey,” written by Janmeja Johal, is a truly distinctive work. In this book, the author shares his life lessons and practical tips for living with ease, presenting them in a wonderfully creative and humorous style. To hear the entire book, download it from Suhavi Audiobooks and enjoy!
    Show book