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  • The Nature of Rousseau’s “Rêveries”: Physical, Human, Aesthetic, SVEC 2008:03
  • Catriona Seth (bio)
John C. O’Neal, ed. The Nature of Rousseau’s “Rêveries”: Physical, Human, Aesthetic, SVEC 2008:03. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2008. xi+281pp. £60; €85; US$125. ISBN 978-0-7294-0928-5.

Seventeen essays make up this collection which, as its title indicates, is solely concerned with Rousseau’s posthumous Rêveries d’un promeneur solitaire. It is refreshing to have a series of articles on a single essential work. The editor, John C. O’Neal of Hamilton College, New York, a respected Rousseau scholar, whose own piece deals with nature as refuge in the Rêveries, must be praised for choosing to bring together a diverse set of contributors, two-thirds of whom teach in American universities, the others in institutions in France, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong, and for thus producing a wide-ranging and challenging volume. Nature is understood in various ways by the authors, and one of the particularly satisfying aspects of the whole is that its individual parts—in both French and English, as the volume is bilingual—echo, prolong, or modulate all of the others. Indeed, even the occasional apparent contradictions from one article to the next (for instance, on the extent to which Rousseau, as a botanist, was influenced by Linnaeus’s, rather than by Jussieu’s model) generate fascinating tensions. As one might expect, certain “promenades” are studied more closely than others. The second, in particular, warrants attention from numerous contributors: J.-L. Guichet (“Nature et origine: l’accident de Ménilmontant”), J. Berchtold (“Le Carrosse et le jardinier: nature et dénaturation dans la Deuxième promenade”), and O. Mostefai (“De Vincennes à Ménilmontant: promenade et projet autobiographique dans les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire ”) deal with the second promenade specifically in their articles, and other authors allude to it.

Possibly surprisingly, the book opens with an essay on another much-commented promenade, the “septième,” dealing with it as “a peculiar account of Rousseau’s botany” (A. Cook). This is not illogical because the book, rather than attempting to follow the original text’s [End Page 148] order, is structured in such a way as to move from “Nature in Rousseau’s Rêveries” to “Nature and Human Nature in Rousseau’s Rêveries,” “Human Nature in Rousseau’s Rêveries” and, finally, “The Formal or Aesthetic Nature of Rousseau’s Rêveries.” From botanical specimens to landscapes inspired by Rousseau as seen in a portrait by Marguerite Gérard or a statue by David d’Angers, the illustrations give an idea of the variety of questions explored in the essays. Some articles make interesting remarks based on precise textual analysis. For instance, Natasha Lee stresses how important the restrictive “ne ... que” form is in Rousseau’s Rêveries (“A dream of human nature”). Using a thematic angle, Jacques Berchtold casts new light on seemingly anecdotal details regarding an inn sign and the motif of the carriage given by Rousseau in his second promenade when recounting his accident in Ménilmontant.

Other authors seek to approach the text from a wider viewpoint. John T. Scott offers an original insight in “Rousseau’s Quixotic Quest in the Rêveries du promeneur solitaire,” while Jean-François Perrin presents “Les Opérations que font les physiciens: physique de l’homme naturel selon les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire,” in which he posits that Rousseau’s final work offers him an opportunity to adopt an experimental approach to natural man living in society. Dorothy Johnson deals with an unexpected area of Rousseauism after Rousseau, studying his heritage from the point of view of the artist by examining his influence on landscapes and their representation in the years immediately after the Revolution (“Rousseau and Landscape Painting in France”).

It is this reviewer’s privilege to distinguish a particular study within a set. In my view, Laurence Mall’s ground-breaking piece is at once profound, eloquently argued, and well written. It examines the text’s message concerning an essential aspect of Rousseau’s thought, taking as its starting point the quotation: “Dieu est...

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