The Confessions and Correspondence, Including the Letters to Malesherbes

739 Pages·1995·44.673 MB·English

by  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

THE CONFESSIONS
AND CORRESPONDENCE,
INCLUDING THE LETTERS
TO MALESHERBES

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
THE CONFESSIONS
AND CORRESPONDENCE,
INCLUDING THE LETTERS
TO MALESHERBES
THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF ROUSSEAU
Vol.s
EDITED BY
CHRISTOPHER KELLY, ROGER D. MASTERS,
AND PETER G. STILLMAN
TRANSLATED BY
CHRISTOPHER KELLY
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
PUBLISHED BT UNIVERSITY PRESS OF NEW ENGLAND
HANOVER AND LONDON
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Published by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH 0375s
©199s by the Trustees of Dartmouth College
First University Press of New England paperback edition 1998
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America s 4 3 2
This publication has been supported by a grant from
the National Endowment for the Humanities,
an independent federal agency. Support has also
been provided by Pro Helvetia.
Frontispiece: Jean-Jacques Rousseau atMontmorency 17S7-1762,
drawing by Houel; used by permission of Musee
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montmorency.
Library of Congress Catalogiruj-in-Publication Data
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778.
[Confessions. English]
The confessions ; and, Correspondence, including the letters to
Malesherbes / Jean-Jacques Rousseau ; edited by Christopher Kelly,
Roger D. Masters, and Peter G. Stillman ; translated by Christopher
Kelly.
p. cm. — (The collected writings of Rousseau ; vol. 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87451-707-9 (cl.: alk. paper). — ISBN 0-87451-836-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778—Biography. 2. Rousseau,
Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778—Correspondence. 3. Malesherbes, Chretien
Guillaume de Lamoingnon de, 1721-1794—Correspondence. 4. Authors,
French—18th century—Biography. 5. Authors, French—18th century—
Correspondence. I. Malesherbes, Chretien Guillaume de Lamoingnon
de, 1721-1794. II. Kelly, Christopher, 1950- . III. Masters,
Roger D. IV. Stillman, Peter G. V. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,
1712-1778. Correspondence. English. Selections. VI. Title.
VII. Title: Confessions. VIII. Title: Confessions ; and,
Correspondence, including the letters to Malesherbes. IX. Title:
Correspondence, including the letters to Malesherbes. X. Series:
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778. Works. English. 1990 ; vol. 5.
PQ2034A3 1990vol. 5
[PQ2036]
848'.509 s—dc2O
[848'.509] 94-47021
[B]
Contents
Series List vi
Preface vii
Chronology of Events Reported in the Confessions ix
Introduction xvii
Note on the Text xxxv
The Confessions i
First Part
Book I s
Book II 38
Book III 74
Book IV ///
BookV 148
Book VI 189
Second Part
Book VII 233
Book VIII 293
Book IX 337
Book X 410
Book XI 466
Book XII 493
Appendix I:
Letters Referred to in the Text of the Confessions s$i
Appendix II:
Fragments $8$
Notes S95
Index 687
THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF ROUSSEAU
Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly,
Series Editors
Volume i
Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques: Dialogues
Volume 2
Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (First Discourse)
and Polemics
Volumes
Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (Second Discourse),
Polemics, and Political Economy
Volume 4
Social Contract, Discourse on the Virtue Most Necessary for a Hero,
Political Fragments, and Geneva Manuscript
Volumes
The Confessions and Correspondence,
Including the Letters to Malesherbes
Volume 6
Julie, or the New Heloise: Letters of Two Lovers
Who Live in a Small Town at the Foot of the Alps
Volume 7
Essay on the Origin of Languages
and Writings Related to Music
Volume 8
The Reveries of the Solitary Walker,
Botanical Writings, and Letter to Franquieres
Preface
Although Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a significant figure in the Western
tradition, there is no standard edition of his major writings available in
English. Unlike those of other thinkers of comparable stature, moreover,
many of Rousseau's important works either have never been translated or
have become unavailable. The present edition of the Collected Writings of
Rousseau is intended to remedy this situation.
Our goal is to produce a series that can provide a standard reference
for scholarship that is accessible to all those wishing to read broadly in
the corpus of Rousseau's work. To this end, the translations seek to com-
bine care and faithfulness to the original French text with readability in
English. Although, as every translator knows, there are often passages
where it is impossible to meet both of these criteria at the same time,
readers of a thinker and writer of Rousseau's stature deserve texts that
have not been deformed by the interpretive bias of translators or editors.
Wherever possible, existing translations of high quality have been used,
although in some cases the editors have felt minor revisions were nec-
essary to maintain the accuracy and consistency of the English versions.
Where there was no English translation (or none of sufficient quality), a
new translation has been prepared.
Each text is supplemented by editorial notes that clarify Rousseau's
references and citations or passages otherwise not intelligible. Although
these notes do not provide as much detail as is found in the critical appa-
ratus of the Pleiade edition of the Oeuvres completes^ the English-speaking
reader should nevertheless have in hand the basis for a more careful and
comprehensive understanding of Rousseau than has hitherto been pos-
sible.
Volume 5 contains the first English translation of the Confessions based
on the definitive French edition, along with most of the variants con-
tained in the different manuscripts of the work. In addition, it includes
translations of the letters to and from Rousseau referred to in the body of
the Confessions, Of special importance are the four letters to Malesherbes,
which represent Rousseau's earliest autobiographical effort. The Confes-
sions has probably been Rousseau's most consistently popular work in the
two centuries since it was first published. It is responsible for giving im-
petus to the great wave of autobiographies that followed it and had a
vii
viii Preface
profound influence on the development of the modern novel. Along with
its importance as a personal document and literary work, the Confessions
is Rousseau's attempt to illustrate the principles of his understanding of
human nature by means of a concrete example. Finally, it explores in all
their complexity the relations between the attempt to achieve psychologi-
cal independence and wholeness on the one hand and the effort to live in
a complex society on the other.
The translator would like to thank the National Endowment for the
Humanities for its support in the form of a summer stipend that assisted
in the preparation of the final draft of the translation. Thanks are also due
to Jeanne Kelly, Joel Schwarz, Elaine Wolfe, Michael Comenetz, and the
anonymous readers for the University Press of New England for their
detection of errors and suggestions for improvement as a result of their
reading of early drafts. We are also grateful to Robert Thi6ry, conserva-
teur of the Musee J.-J. Rousseau in Montmorency for permission to
reproduce the sketch by Houel that serves as frontispiece to this volume.
June 1994 c.K.
R.D.M.
P.G.S.
Chronology of Events Reported in the Confessions
Book I
1672
December 28: Birth of Rousseau's father, Isaac Rousseau.
1673
February 6: Birth of Rousseau's mother, Suzanne Bernard.
1704
Marriage of Rousseau's parents.
1705
Birth of Rousseau's brother, Francis.
1712
June 28: Birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
1722
October: Rousseau's father leaves Geneva after his quarrel with
Captain Gautier, and Rousseau is sent to Bossey to live with the
Lamberciers.
1724
Rousseau returns to Geneva to live with his uncle, Gabriel Bernard.
Rousseau is apprenticed to the city clerk, M. Masseron.
1725
April: Rousseau is apprenticed to the engraver, Abel Du Commun.
1728
March 14: Rousseau decides to run away from Geneva after finding
the city gates locked.
Book II
1728
March 21: Rousseau meets Mme de Warens in Annecy.
April 12: Rousseau enters the hospice for the catechumens in Turin.
April 23: Rousseau is baptized a Catholic.
IX