Rousseau’s Hand: The Crafting of a Writer par by Angelica Goodden (review)

Reviews 217 philosophers and thinkers (especially Guillaume Briçonnet and, more cautiously, Marsilio Ficino) on the queen’s verse and prose. Ford underscores images that reflect neo-Platonic ideas but also coincide with the writer’s evangelical religious views. Isabelle Garnier and Isabelle Patin thoroughly trace the publication and development of Marguerite’s poetry from its“militant”beginnings in the Miroir de l’âme pécheresse to the self-reflective text of the Miroir de Jésus-Christ crucifié. Reinier Leushuis’s article also emphasizes Christian self-consciousness in the Dialogue en forme de vision nocturne and La Navire. Though the comparisons with Petrarch are not as useful as his actual analysis of Marguerite’s poems, Leushuis exquisitely nuances our understanding of human agency in the queen’s work. The next chapter dealing with Les prisons builds on the theme of literary influence. Cynthia Skenazi points to reflections of courtly and philosophical literature in Les prisons and argues that Amy’s conversion in the narrative demonstrates “the power of literature to engender the reader’s quest for God’s love” (214). Skenazi interprets the polyphonic nature of the central story as urging readers to (re)consider key theological questions of grace, free will, faith, and love while realizing that human knowledge is incomplete at best. Similarly, Jan Miernowski elucidates the Chansons spirituelles’ transforming power on the enlightened and humbled hearer. He draws out significant themes and images across the songs that point to the contrition of soul necessary to receive the gift of divine grace. Olivier Millet’s treatment of the biblical and non-biblical plays situates them in relation to each other and summarizes their plots and the major tenants of evangelical and mystical spirituality that are also present in these dramatic works. Millet concludes that the plays prefigure the Heptaméron. The editors close the collection with an excellent synopsis of the similarities and differences in theme, genre, and subject matter between Marguerite’s most widely read prose work and her poetry. This volume gives historical, theological, and literary context to a wide range of works often neglected in editions dedicated to the queen’s better-known texts. Along with the extensive footnotes and bibliography, these refreshing studies are essential to any critic interested in this woman of letters. Virginia Military Institute Jeff Kendrick Goodden, Angelica. Rousseau’s Hand: The Crafting of a Writer. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-968383-3. Pp. 238. £55. Meting out the contradictions in both Rousseau’s life and oeuvre is a Herculean task, yet given its central place in the history of the Enlightenment, his puzzling relationship to the arts is one that demands further inquiry. Rousseau’s Hand reconciles Rousseau the artisan with Rousseau the author by demonstrating why the reluctant philosophe perceived a certain manner of writing as a useful craft and thus not incompatible with his worldview.As Goodden aptly argues,Rousseau sought to only write for the moral benefit of humanity, rather than publishing for money as many professional writers did. In the first chapter,“The Business of Making,” she provides a survey of Geneva’s tradition of craftsmanship, with a particular emphasis on horology and Rousseau’s family’s contribution to it. In the next chapter,“Writing (Down) Music,”she notes that his preoccupations with craft during his boyhood, along with his artisanal training, allowed him to get by financially later on in life when the written word fell short. His artisanal leanings also gave him the peace of mind to stop writing when it suited him, instead pursuing what he viewed as more worthwhile endeavors. Copying music in the 1760s in Paris, for example, and the automatism it entailed, provided him with great relief from the ordeals to which he was subjected as a writer and creator. In the following two chapters, “Art or Craft” and “Drama and Life,” the author elegantly shows how Rousseau was at times contradictory and at others consistent in his stance on the arts.She provides a rigorous chronological and formal analysis of his writings on the arts and craftsmanship and an overview of his activities as an artisan. The inclusion of Gravelot’s illustrations from Julie ou...