The polemics of sensibility

Abstract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's epistolary novel, "Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloise, created a literary sensation as the best-selling book of the eighteenth century, and the author himself had a consequential, if controversial influence on the French Revolution, as well as the Romantic Movement. Although recent scholarship on Rousseau and revolutiln has turned toward the role of ideology in the writings of the author, his sentimental novel receives little modern attention. This essay addresses the salience of Rousseau's novel as the most comprehensive statement of his thought, creating the "myth of Rousseau" and a generation of believers who identified with the author and his philosophy...