The Confessions

中文名:
忏悔录
作者:
让·雅克·卢梭 Jean, Jacques Rousseau
类型:
传记回忆录
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忏悔录(The Confessions)简介:

Confessions is an autobiographical book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In modern times, it is often published with the title The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in order to distinguish it from St. Augustine of Hippo's Confessions, the book from which Jean-Jacques Rousseau took the title for his own book. Covering the first fifty-three years of Rousseau's life, up to 1765, it was completed in 1769, but not published until 1782, four years after Rousseau's death - even though Rousseau did read excerpts of his manuscript publicly at various salons and other meeting places.

The Confessions is divided into two parts, each consisting of six books. Rousseau alludes to a planned third part, but this was never completed. Though the book is somewhat flawed as an autobiography – particularly, Rousseau's dates are frequently off, and some events are out of order – Rousseau provides an account of the experiences that shaped his influential philosophy. For instance, the parts of his own education he liked best are clearly present in his account of ideal education, Emile: Or, On Education.

Rousseau's work is notable as one of the first major autobiographies. Prior to his writing the Confessions, the two great autobiographies were Augustine's own Confessions and Saint Teresa's Life of Herself. Both of these works, however, focused on the religious experiences of their authors. The Confessions was one of the first autobiographies in which an individual wrote of his own life mainly in terms of his worldly experiences and personal feelings. Rousseau recognized the unique nature of his work; it opens with the famous words:

I have resolved on an enterprise which has no precedent, and which, once complete, will have no imitator. My purpose is to display to my kind a portrait in every way true to nature, and the man I shall portray will be myself.

Some scholars believe that his prediction was wide off the mark. Not long after publication many other writers (such as Goethe, Wordsworth and De Quincey) wrote their own similarly-styled autobiographies. However, Leo Damrosch argues that Rousseau meant that it would be impossible to imitate his book, as nobody else would be like Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The Confessions is also noted for its detailed account of Rousseau's more humiliating and shameful moments. For instance, Rousseau recounts an incident when, while a servant, he covered up his theft of a ribbon by framing a young girl - who was working in the house - for the crime. In addition, Rousseau explains the manner in which he disposes of his five illegitimate children, whom he had with a girl named Therese.

His contemporaries, including Diderot and Voltaire, often slandered and framed Rousseau. Rousseau believed that he made so many friends simply because of his many talents that others did not possess. He made contributions to music, writing operas, cantatas and tragedies. He refers to Diderot, a German named Grimm, and others, as the Holbachian clique. His friendship with Diderot wavered frequently until Rousseau decided to completely break off relations with him because of his lack of character. As with Voltaire, in a letter revealed in Confessions, Rousseau bluntly explains that the only thing he admired in Voltaire was his indubitable genius.

  作者卢梭是法国十八世纪思想家和文学家。这部名为“忏悔”实为“控诉”的《忏悔录》记载了他从出生到被迫离开对皮埃尔岛之间五十年的生活经历,讲述了他被侮辱和被损害的一生。作品思想内容丰富,人物形象鲜明,情节生动真实,是卢梭文学创作中最为重要的一部。
  
  在历史上多得难以数计的自传作品中,真正有文学价值的显然并不多,而成为文学名著的则更少。至于以其思想、艺术和风格上的重要意义而奠定了撰写者的文学地位——不是一个普通的文学席位,而是长久地爱人景仰的崇高地位的,也许只有《忏悔录》了。卢梭这个不论在社会政治思想上,在文学内容、风格和情调上都开辟了一个新的时代的人物,主要就是通过这部自传推动和启发了十九世纪的法国文学,使它——用当时很有权威的一位批评家的话来说——“获得最大的进步”、“自巴斯喀以来最大的革命”,这位批语家谦虚地承认:“我们十九世纪的人就是从这次革命里出来的”。 

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