Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau / Year: 1712-1778 / Genre: History Only a few popular autobiographies existed before philosopher, author, and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau
published his Confessions. Rousseau wrote treatises on education and politics as well as novels and operas,
and as one of the most influential and controversial of the Enlightenment thinkers, he inspired the leaders of
the French Revolution. His memoir is regarded as the first modern autobiography, in which the writer defined
his life mainly in terms of his worldly experiences and personal feelings.
These memoirs constitute the main source of Rousseau's reputation as a leader in the transition from
eighteenth-century reason to nineteenth-century romanticism. His emphasis on the effects of childhood
experiences anticipates the psychology of Sigmund Freud, and his conviction that the individual is worthy
of account forms a major contribution to progressive social and political thought. The book has inspired
many imitations in autobiography, fiction, and poetry, and it has influenced the works of Proust, Goethe,
Tolstoy, and countless others.
