Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778
Biographical note
Enlightenment philosopher whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. Rousseau also made important contributions to music both as a theorist and as a composer. With his Confessions and other writings, he practically invented modern autobiography and encouraged a new focus on the building of subjectivity that would bear fruit in the work of thinkers as diverse as Hegel and Freud.
His novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse was one of the best-selling fictional works of the eighteenth century and was important to the development of romanticism.
Works
- Dissertation sur la musique moderne [1736]
- Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (Discours sur les sciences et les arts) [1750]
- Narcissus, or The Self-Admirer: A Comedy [1752]
- Le Devin du Village: an opera [1752]
- Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality Among Men (Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes) [1754]
- Discourse on Political Economy [1755]
- Letter to M. D'Alembert on Spectacles (Lettre à d'Alembert sur les spectacles) [1758]
- Julie, or the New Heloise (Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse) [1761]
- Émile ; or, Concerning Education; Extracts / Jean-Jacques Rousseau; translated by Eleanor Worthington; edited by Jules Steeg
- Émile: or, on Education (Émile ou de l'éducation) [1762]
- The Creed of a Savoyard Priest [1762 (in Émile)]
- The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (Du contrat social) [1762]
- Four Letters to M. de Malesherbes [1762]
- Pygmalion: a Lyric Scene [1762]
- Letters Written from the Mountain (Lettres de la montagne) [1764]
- Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Les Confessions) / translated by W. Conyngham Mallory [1770]
- Constitutional Project for Corsica [1772]
- Considerations on the Government of Poland [1772]
- Essay on the Origin of Languages (Essai sur l'origine des langues) [1781]
- Reveries of a Solitary Walker (Rêveries du promeneur solitaire), incomplete [1782]
- Dialogues: Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques [1782]
