The Noble Savage (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

In 1983, Maurice Cranston, a political scientist at the London School of Economics, published the first of his projected three volumes on the life of Rousseau. THE NOBLE SAVAGE, the second volume, accounts for the period of Rousseau’s greatest intellectual achievements, between ages forty-two and fifty-one. A reclusive thinker who exerted little influence on events of his day, Rousseau (1712-1778) profoundly influenced both the Romantic movement in art and the revolutionary political and social changes of the nineteenth century.

Believing in the innate goodness of man and the corrupting influence of established institutions, Rousseau developed ideas for reform in art, education, human relationships, politics, and religion in a series of seminal works written during the period 1754-1762. Among these, EMILE clarifies his ideas about education and THE NEW HELOISE presents an idealized version of human relationships. In THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, Rousseau offers his revolutionary idea that sovereignty derives from the people and is retained by the people. Cranston summarizes the major themes and clarifies their most important implications.

In narrating the life, Cranston carefully avoids developing a thesis. Rather he provides a generous selection of quotations from letters and papers of Rousseau and his circle to create a portrait of the character. Careful analysis of the sources enables Cranston to correct many false impressions left by Rousseau himself in his autobiography.

Nevertheless, the overall impression of Rousseau’s character is one that earlier biographies have described. Cranston’s Rousseau is sentimental, overly sensitive to slights, and obsessively concerned about others’ opinions of him. On the other hand, he is both courageous and industrious. Because he will not accept the censorship of Paris, he publishes his writings in Amsterdam at much lower profit. He partially supports himself by copying musical scores. While he enjoys the company of aristocratic ladies and patrons, he spends most of his time in seclusion on their estates in Montmorency. After he has been condemned to death for his religious views, his patrons have to urge him to flee France; Cranston’s next volume will begin with Rousseau’s flight to Switzerland in 1762.

Sources for Further Study

Chicago Tribune. July 7, 1991, XIV, p. 6.

History Today. XLI, May, 1991, p. 55.

London Review of Books. XIII, June 27, 1991, p. 15.

New Statesman and Society. IV, April 12, 1991, p. 36.

The New York Times Book Review. XCVI, July 28, 1991, p. 12.

The Observer. February 24, 1991, p. 63.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXVIII, April 5, 1991, p. 126.

The Spectator. CCLXVI, March 9, 1991, p. 33.

The Times Literary Supplement. March 1, 1991, p. 10.

The Washington Post Book World. XXI, June 23, 1991, p. 5.