Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712, the son of a watchmaker. He left the city at fifteen and made his way as a servant, tutor, musician and music copyist. In Paris he wrote articles on music for the Encyclopédie. In 1750 his Discourse on the Sciences and Arts made him famous overnight. There followed the Discourse on Inequality (1755), the Letter on the Theatre (1758) and the novel Julie, or the New Héloïse (1761). In 1762 appeared The Social Contract and Émile. Both books were condemned in Paris and Geneva, and Rousseau lived from then on in flight, in Switzerland and England. Later came the Confessions and the Reveries of the Solitary Walker. He died in 1778 in Ermenonville near Paris.
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Topics: Philosophy · Art · Theatre