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An Uneasy Solitude: Individual and Society in the Work of Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Maurice Gonnaud
2014
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This subtle intellectual biography juxtaposes Ralph Waldo Emerson's revolutionary spiritual thinking with his elitist ideas of race and property--a contrast so sharp as to make his personality seem almost incoherent." Writing in (he great modern tradition of French anglicisles, Maurice Gonnaud compares Emerson's taste for solitude and the lyric ardor it awakened in him to his efforts to confront the social pressures of his times.

Originally published in 1987.

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Table of Contents

Cover

Title page, Quote, Copyright

pp. i-iv

Contents

pp. v-vi

Foreword, by Eric Cheyfitz

pp. vii-xviii

Translator's Preface, by Lawrence Rosenwald

pp. xix-xx

Author's Preface to the French Edition

pp. xxi-xxv

Abbreviations

pp. xxvii

Part I The Uncertainties of a Vocation

1. The Family Milieu

pp. 3-20

2. Harvard: An Apprenticeship in Solitude

pp. 21-34

3. The Schoolteacher Feels His Way

pp. 35-61

4. The Ministry, or, An Attampt at the Safe Middle Way

pp. 62-107

Part II The Discovery and Glorification of the Self

5. The Road to Concord

pp. 111-146

6. Prophesies and Epiphany

pp. 147-179

7. Organizing Victory

pp. 180-220

8. From Affirmation to Challenge

pp. 221-255

Part III From Ideal Democracy to Natural Aristocracy

9. Malaise

pp. 259-297

10. Exploring the Problems

pp. 298-340

11. Equilibrium Regained

pp. 341-383

Part IV Individual and Citizen

12. The Thorn in the Flesh

pp. 387-406

13. A Surrogate Optimism

pp. 407-442

14. The Last Struggle

pp. 443-462

Bibliography of Emerson's Writings

pp. 463-468

Index

pp. 469-477
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