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Title: Legends of The Enlightenment

Subtitle: The Life and Legacy of Jean Jacques Rousseau

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Mark Linsenmayer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-02-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

"A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue." - Rousseau

"Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it means one always has some battle to wage against oneself." - Rousseau

The grand narrative of the Enlightenment, usually recounted and understood in terms of progress and modernity, generally appears as a simplified evolution from the trappings of superstition, feudalism, and everything "irrational" to a world more similar to today's world. Alongside the Renaissance, the Enlightenment is credited for the transition to an adherence to reason, secularism, and promotion of values such as individual and collective freedom and liberty. Of course, one of the towering figures of the age was Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose works were essential to the ideological developments of the 18th century. The prestige of French literature in the 18th century resides especially in its revolutionary character; while the writers of the previous century used to support the social order through their works and showed sympathy and even attempted to explain the political order of the time, in the 18th century, art, literature, philosophy and science all contribute actively and fiercely to the fight against the absolutist monarch and his regime. While this was a current manifesting all throughout Europe, there were differences in practice, especially between close countries (as was the case of England and France). There are many books and articles published constantly on the life and works of Rousseau. What generated such an abundance of writings is the turbulent life he led and the courage and audacity he manifested while fighting the prejudices of the time and establishing his ideas firmly within the academic community.

Members Reviews:

Charles Rivers does a good job here

Charles Rivers does a good job here. I've always found an interest in reading Rousseau's writings, but this is an interesting account of his life, which I've never had the pleasure of reading very much about it. Recommended for the fan of Rousseau.

An "Enlightening" read

This was one of the better Charles River Editors offerings. However, the first chapter was a bit haphazard in jumping around European cultural, social, and literary developments which led to the Enlightenment.

Once the "editors" began to concentrate on Rousseau, however, things settled down. In college, I remember having to read "Emile" and not really liking it very much! But as I matured and learned a bit more about the influence Rousseau had upon the changing climate not only in Europe, but the influence he had upon American thinkers like Thomas Jefferson, I appreciated the story a bit more.

This article got into a lot of territory I knew nothing about. For instance, I had no idea Rousseau, as a younger man, wrote operas to help support himself! And the other thing I hadn't known was that he had five children by his housekeeper and ended up taking each one, after it was born, to an orphanage and leaving it wrapped up in a blanket on the steps! Yet he was a man who always wrote about the importance of a strong, central family unit in any democratic society. Rather hypocritic of him!

This was a good read.