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Jean-Jacques Rousseau #2
The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762
The Noble Savage, the second volume of Maurice Cranston's unparalleled biography of Rousseau's life and works, continues the exposition of Rousseau's life launched in Jean-Jacques.
Rejecting the psychological and sociological approaches which have long dominated Rousseau studies, Cranston draws from original manuscript sources, determined, he insists, "to break the chain of books based on books."
Cranston completes and corrects the story told in Rousseau's Confessions, and offers a vivid, entirely new history of his most eventful and productive years. He describes how Rousseau's renunciation of fortunes was followed by prodigious literary fame; how the writing of La Nouvelle Héloïse mirrored his most tumultuous love affaire; how quarrels and intrigues ended his friendships with Voltaire, Diderot, and other philosophers of the Enlightenment, while intimacy with the nobility sharpened his distaste for bourgeois conventionality.
Cranston also describes the stormy impact of Rousseau's writings, showing how his unorthodox defense of religion in Émile unhappily provoked the hostility of believers and unbelievers alike; and how his support for the republican constitution of Geneva was rewarded with a warrant for his arrest.
The philosopher of Nature is shown to have become increasingly uneasy in the rustic retreat at Montmorency, where he claimed to have found serenity after his departure from Paris. Affectionate, yet selfish, rude, and brutally honest, Rousseau was able to alternately charm and alienate the people he met. With his passionate, subversive writings, he propelled the world from rationalism and hedonism toward romanticism and revolution.
"Luckily for us, Maurice Cranston's The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762 has managed to craft a highly detailed account of eight key years of Rousseau's life in such a way that we can both understand and even, on occasion, sympathize."
— Olivier Bernier, Wall Street Journal
Rejecting the psychological and sociological approaches which have long dominated Rousseau studies, Cranston draws from original manuscript sources, determined, he insists, "to break the chain of books based on books."
Cranston completes and corrects the story told in Rousseau's Confessions, and offers a vivid, entirely new history of his most eventful and productive years. He describes how Rousseau's renunciation of fortunes was followed by prodigious literary fame; how the writing of La Nouvelle Héloïse mirrored his most tumultuous love affaire; how quarrels and intrigues ended his friendships with Voltaire, Diderot, and other philosophers of the Enlightenment, while intimacy with the nobility sharpened his distaste for bourgeois conventionality.
Cranston also describes the stormy impact of Rousseau's writings, showing how his unorthodox defense of religion in Émile unhappily provoked the hostility of believers and unbelievers alike; and how his support for the republican constitution of Geneva was rewarded with a warrant for his arrest.
The philosopher of Nature is shown to have become increasingly uneasy in the rustic retreat at Montmorency, where he claimed to have found serenity after his departure from Paris. Affectionate, yet selfish, rude, and brutally honest, Rousseau was able to alternately charm and alienate the people he met. With his passionate, subversive writings, he propelled the world from rationalism and hedonism toward romanticism and revolution.
"Luckily for us, Maurice Cranston's The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762 has managed to craft a highly detailed account of eight key years of Rousseau's life in such a way that we can both understand and even, on occasion, sympathize."
— Olivier Bernier, Wall Street Journal
413 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1991
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About the author
Maurice Cranston
68 books8 followersMaurice William Cranston was an English philosopher, professor, and author. He served for many years as Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, and was also known for his popular publications. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was Professor of Political Theory at the European University Institute in Florence (Italy).
Cranston's major works include biographies of John Locke, for which he received the 1957 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others addressing the history of liberty. He contributed to many publications in both Britain and the United States and wrote scripts for the BBC. In 1946 two of his detective novels were published by John Westhouse: Tomorrow We'll Be Sober and Philosopher's Hemlock.
Cranston's intellectual abilities were varied. His first academic book, Freedom: A New Analysis (1954), covered history (the history of liberalism), politics (a precursive discussion of what Sir Isaiah Berlin would later analyse as negative and positive liberty) and a philosophical attempt to resolve or at least elucidate freedom of the will. The philosophical section was the least successful; and Cranston never again attempted pure philosophy. His main academic strengths were as a biographer and as an intellectual historian.
In his later years, Cranston moved to the political right, and expressed admiration for Margaret Thatcher. Cranston also contributed to The American Spectator magazine.
He died of a heart attack while taping a television production in London for the BBC.
(excerpted from Wikipedia)
Cranston's major works include biographies of John Locke, for which he received the 1957 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others addressing the history of liberty. He contributed to many publications in both Britain and the United States and wrote scripts for the BBC. In 1946 two of his detective novels were published by John Westhouse: Tomorrow We'll Be Sober and Philosopher's Hemlock.
Cranston's intellectual abilities were varied. His first academic book, Freedom: A New Analysis (1954), covered history (the history of liberalism), politics (a precursive discussion of what Sir Isaiah Berlin would later analyse as negative and positive liberty) and a philosophical attempt to resolve or at least elucidate freedom of the will. The philosophical section was the least successful; and Cranston never again attempted pure philosophy. His main academic strengths were as a biographer and as an intellectual historian.
In his later years, Cranston moved to the political right, and expressed admiration for Margaret Thatcher. Cranston also contributed to The American Spectator magazine.
He died of a heart attack while taping a television production in London for the BBC.
(excerpted from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 31, 2008
I greatly admire Cranston's biography of Rousseau. Cranston is most successful in conveying Rousseau's mania for maintaining his independence of mind and thought. He is also quite insightful in describing Rousseau's principle philosphical/literary project. It's hard to call his work philosophy, at least in my understanding of the discipline, and yet it's not exactly imaginitive literature either.
I do grow impatient with biographers who seem to transcribe their subject's appointment book into a biography. I do not need or want to learn of every one of his dinner engagements with one grandee or another, or of his little spats with nearly everyone. His major quarrels are interesting and important, and more than enough. But perhaps it's important to know how petty and small minded great men can be.
I do grow impatient with biographers who seem to transcribe their subject's appointment book into a biography. I do not need or want to learn of every one of his dinner engagements with one grandee or another, or of his little spats with nearly everyone. His major quarrels are interesting and important, and more than enough. But perhaps it's important to know how petty and small minded great men can be.
June 20, 2008
I recommend reading this for a reasoned secularist's view of Jesus.
What I remember from this is that he despises the percieved passivism that Jesus "inspires" in His followers and praises the aggressive striving of the barbarian.
What I remember from this is that he despises the percieved passivism that Jesus "inspires" in His followers and praises the aggressive striving of the barbarian.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews