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INTRODUCING ROUSSEAU, however, is another story. The narrative of Dave Robinson ably simplifies the extraordinary life and work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, analyzes his sometimes contradictory positions (particularly in THE SOCIAL CONTRACT) and pays tribute to his amazing originality, which was born of his alienation, solitude and protracted reflection, and presaged the French Revolution, the Age of Romanticism, the "progressive" education of children (Pestalozzi and Montessori) and even certain perspectives of Post-Modernism (Foucault); but the drawings of Oscar Zarate, accompanying the text, fail to charm and even tend to turn you off. There is wit in them (for example, Rousseau sitting naked at his desk and baring his soul in the CONFESSIONS), but the artist has chosen to portray all of his figures as mannikins, puppets or paper-doll cutouts, a device that becomes boring and insipid long before the end of 173 pages. Even worse, once having made his main ink portrait of Rousseau (page 5)--a cadaverous, lipless and bewigged skull-like bust of a man who historical portraits reveal to have been full-faced, full-lipped and handsome, Zarate reproduces it on every occasion when Rousseau is summoned forth to make a statement (pages 6, 12, 13, 18, 25...). This horrible head, shrunken down or blown up, is repeated 20 times throughout the book, and all the other drawings, both of Rousseau and his contemporaries, are photo-reproduced so often you feel cheated. It's almost enough to make you agree with the paranoid "citizen of Geneva" that people planned to malign and disfigure him after his death, but more likely he was simply short-changed. Not recommended--either for introduction or review.
Reading of his youthful exposure of his backside to a group of young aristocratic girls in Turin made me laugh. A disappointment was reading of his prescribed religionist sentiment (Deisim) in "The Social Contract," wherein he -- to my shock -- promoted intolerance of atheism and that nonbelievers should be put to death (he later regretted this final chapter of "The Social Contract" and tried to suppress it). Another disappointment concerned his relationship to his children.
This book is loaded with information on the man and his thoughts. It is an excellent and wonderful "introduction" to Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- and actually more than an introduction, as the book very adequately touches on the salient points and major (and some minor!) events of this man's life. It's a very solid biography.
Of particular interest is contrasting Rousseau's ::artistic:: personality (sentiments and moods) alongside of his contemporary "Philosophes" such as Voltaire and Diderot. My impression is that Rousseau discovered, by himself, methods of what would today be termed ::meditation::, and he also seems to have come to know the essences of Yin and Yang, though of course he'd probably never heard of those concepts. His artistry and nature-appreciating soul was primarily what set him apart -- fascinatingly -- from his contemporaries.
I'm now reading "The Confessions" online. I was sad to finish the book, and can't yet put it away; I'm skimming certain sections again. Rousseau certainly touched me, despite my marked disagreement with him in certain areas.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a fascinating character who captivated Europe by subverting the rationalist Enlightenment with the revolutionary idea that civilization was actually bad for humanity. This book offers an abbreviated biography of Rousseau, interspersed with summaries of his works. The majority of the text is devoted to in-depth discussions of the novel Émile and the political treatise The Social Contract. Dave Robinson does an admirable job of explaining Rousseau's philosophical concepts clearly and concisely. This book is by no means a Rousseau lovefest; Robinson is quite critical of Rousseau's ideas and if anything I wish he had been a little more complimentary, as it might give the reader a better idea of why exactly Rousseau was so admired and so influential. In this account Rousseau comes across a little like a kook who had no business being buried in the Pantheon. Nonetheless, the writing is lively and engaging, providing about two hours of entertaining and educational reading. I was less impressed by the art, which I felt was not particularly well executed and did little to enhance the text. I can appreciate how difficult it must be to find graphic representation for abstract philosophical ideas such as these, but since that is the whole purpose of existence for the "Introducing" series, I expected more from the graphics.
This book, of course, is by no means a substitute for reading the actual works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I approached this book with the intention of answering two fundamental questions: 1) Do I really want to read Rousseau? 2) If so, what work(s) do I want to read? Upon completion of this book, I feel those questions have been adequately answered.
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