Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Samuel William Orson
The Confessions
( Dec. 20, 2019)
Rousseau begins his Confessions by claiming that he is about to embark on an enterprise never before attempted: to present a self-portrait that is “in every way true to nature” and that hides nothing. He begins his tale by describing his family, including his mother’s death at his birth. He ruminates on his earliest memories, which begin when he was five, a dawning of consciousness that he traces to his learning to read. He discusses his childhood in the years before his father left him and his own decision to run away to see the world at the age of sixteen. He often dwells for many pages on seemingly minor events that hold great importance for him.
Throughout the Confessions, Rousseau frequently discusses the more unsavory or embarrassing experiences of his life, and he devotes much of the early section to these types of episodes. In one section, he describes urinating in a neighbor’s cooking pot as a mischievous child. He also discusses the revelatory experience he had at age eleven of being beaten by an adored female nanny twice his age—and desiring to be beaten again, which he analyzes as being his entry into the world of adult sexuality.
Throughout the Confessions, Rousseau frequently discusses the more unsavory or embarrassing experiences of his life, and he devotes much of the early section to these types of episodes. In one section, he describes urinating in a neighbor’s cooking pot as a mischievous child. He also discusses the revelatory experience he had at age eleven of being beaten by an adored female nanny twice his age—and desiring to be beaten again, which he analyzes as being his entry into the world of adult sexuality.