Volume 7, Number 11 · December 29, 1966
Aimez-Vous Rousseau?
By John Plamenatz
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by Jean Guéhenno, translated by John Weightman, translated by Doreen Weightman
Columbia, 776, (2 vols.) pp., $17.50
'All men of obscure birth feel an instinctive kinship with him.' They feel it, says Mr. Guéhenno, if they have felt the least urge to break free from the limitations of their station, for this urge will have involved them in adventures and indignities similar to his. But most men feeling this urge are not men of genius: They are either more adroit and enterprising than Rousseau was or, if they lack the skill or energy or boldness that bring success, they are more easily resigned to their lot. The man of genius, especially if he is a man of letters or an artist, is possessed by the need to be himself, and seeks to impose himself on others, to exist for them, on his own terms. He does not impose himself by getting power or wealth, or by conventional success of some other kind; he does not seek an exalted place in the world as they see it but a place of his own which requires him to disturb that world. He is, as M. Guéhenno puts it, a monster, and never more so than when his genius is introspective. For then he torments himself and all who come near to him. Close to, he is insufferable, though at a distance—such is the power of his words—he can fascinate. The intensity of his feelings and the subtlety and urgency of arguments aimed, consciously or unconsciously, at justifying or condemning himself, ensure that he seems always to be speaking from the heart. But who speaks from the heart speaks sincerely; or so we often say.
Review, 2738 words
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