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A review by msand3
Reveries of the Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
5.0
It has been about fifteen years since I read [b:Confessions|12649|Confessions|Jean-Jacques Rousseau|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388293814s/12649.jpg|6985890] in college -- too young to appreciate either the book or the man who penned it -- and even longer since I studied [b:The Social Contract|12651|The Social Contract|Jean-Jacques Rousseau|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388197284s/12651.jpg|702720] in school without having read the entire text. Now I find myself returning to Rousseau: my recent foray into German Sturm und Drang and early-Romanticism has lead me to want to dig back into their philosophical roots, including Jean-Jacques.
And so I found myself reading this stunning book, one that has instantly shot into my "favorites" list, in which Rousseau describes his lonely, isolated walks in the country, a Genevan living as a political pariah in France in the final years of his life. His ideas were only just then sparking the writings of the the revolutionaries in America and would yet to influence the French Revolution fifteen years later. But he would never live to see his work elevated to almost-mythic status in France. At the time, Rousseau was living as an outcast, only able to find peace in his solitary walks, study of botany, and transcribing of music.
As in Confessions, Rousseau is brutally honest about himself, including his negative personal faults (perhaps to the point of exaggeration). He grapples with depression and old age, and his longing to connect wth young people (especially children), which he claims old people are unable to do as physically repulsive representations of decay. He describes how he balances his desire for solitary life (which he sees as a good type of "loving the self") with the type of selfish self-love that leads to vanity, which he considers a result of the corrupting influence of social pressures.
Rousseau's writing is elegant but simple, striking a deep emotional chord that had me lost in his words unlike anything I have read in recent memory. I don't often find memoirs to be so moving or lyrical, and was thrown off guard by my connection with Rousseau the man. At times, I felt like he was speaking directly to my own mental and emotional state, despite such vast differences in our lives and circumstances. And so Reveries has found place on my favorite books list. I feel like I need to re-read Confessions with this new appreciation for Rousseau, as well as his entire major body of work, including his fiction.
And so I found myself reading this stunning book, one that has instantly shot into my "favorites" list, in which Rousseau describes his lonely, isolated walks in the country, a Genevan living as a political pariah in France in the final years of his life. His ideas were only just then sparking the writings of the the revolutionaries in America and would yet to influence the French Revolution fifteen years later. But he would never live to see his work elevated to almost-mythic status in France. At the time, Rousseau was living as an outcast, only able to find peace in his solitary walks, study of botany, and transcribing of music.
As in Confessions, Rousseau is brutally honest about himself, including his negative personal faults (perhaps to the point of exaggeration). He grapples with depression and old age, and his longing to connect wth young people (especially children), which he claims old people are unable to do as physically repulsive representations of decay. He describes how he balances his desire for solitary life (which he sees as a good type of "loving the self") with the type of selfish self-love that leads to vanity, which he considers a result of the corrupting influence of social pressures.
Rousseau's writing is elegant but simple, striking a deep emotional chord that had me lost in his words unlike anything I have read in recent memory. I don't often find memoirs to be so moving or lyrical, and was thrown off guard by my connection with Rousseau the man. At times, I felt like he was speaking directly to my own mental and emotional state, despite such vast differences in our lives and circumstances. And so Reveries has found place on my favorite books list. I feel like I need to re-read Confessions with this new appreciation for Rousseau, as well as his entire major body of work, including his fiction.