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355 Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The History of Literature

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What Do We Make of Rousseau?

Rousseau gave his own children away to a foundling hospital, which some historians have said was effectively handing them a death sentence. Ten years after he insisted that therese give the first child away, he tried to find his son and he couldn't. There were no records of what had happened to the ten year old boy. It's an unfathomable action for someone who had any kind of heart. And it does make you wonder if his critics were correct. For all his ideas and ideals, for all his ability, was there something lacking in him? Was he a knave? He had been abandoned? But that's hardly an excuse. Having known the pain himself, he

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