Julie, or the New Heloise: Letters of Two Lovers Who Live in a Small Town at the Foot of the Alps

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Book Overview

An elegant translation of one of the most popular novels of its time. Rousseau's great epistolary novel, Julie, or the New Heloise, has been virtually unavailable in English since 1810. In it, Rousseau reconceptualized the relationship of the individual to the collective and articulated a new moral paradigm. The story follows the fates and smoldering passions of Julie d'Etange and St. Preux, a one-time lover who re-enters Julie's life at the invitation...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874518253
• ISBN13: 9780874518252
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Dartmouth College Press
• Length: 760 Pages
• Weight: 2.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The King of oration loafs in his castle of parchment; tires the queen with inexhaustible ink.

Unquestionably, Rousseau was one of the greatest romantic of the eighteenth century. With ease and eloquence he marshaled voluminous letters between two people charmed with fervent love. This epistolary book is an adaptation of the story of Abelard and Heloise. However, Rousseau's version is less intricate because the two lovers have all the means to justify their inexorable passion. Julie d'Etange is a student of young and idle St. Preux. Among the things she learns from the philosophical mentor is his nascent adoration of her which he reveals through letters. Thus the story begins with verbose proclamation of love between the two. Haplessly for St. Preux, Julie is already promised by her father to be the bride of a more respectable man. She finds herself in quandary of fulfilling an obligation made by an unreasonable father or gratifying a sentiment made by a specious heart. Will Julie find contentment in unrequited union or will she come into realization that two hearts fit together will eventually get loose because their rhythm is so strong, outdoing each other. These letters although pompously written are beautifully composed. It was Rousseau's intention to make this book laborious to read and unappealing. He reasoned out that patience is all that is needed to finish reading it. The topics would dissuade people without taste according to him. Rousseau reiterates virtue, honor, honesty, nurture of children, solicitude of parents, simplicity in life, and ultimately modesty in death. It may be due to apathy why this book is not widely read today. Some of these issues could be so banal. Nonetheless, muse on a few of them. They may prove useful even to libertines at heart.

Sentiments.

Lots of feelings. Seemingly all in the first person, but you know, there are tricks.

A Superb Story

It is a pity that Julie, or the New Heloise is neither better known nor more widely read. It is one of the great novels. Rousseau may be most famous as a philosopher and Julie includes many philosophical passages, discussing issues such as education, virtue and religion, but he shows in this novel that he was both a fine writer and an able storyteller. The ideas he puts into the mouths of his characters are interesting, the debates they engage in are continually fascinating, but it is the story he tells which is truly memorable for it is deeply moving. The novel consists of a series of letters some quite short, some extending to many pages. The main characters are Julie d'Étange, a young Swiss girl of noble birth and her tutor who has the pseudonym St. Preux. They begin an affair and fall deeply in love. It is this initial relationship of pupil to teacher, developing into passion, which is supposed to remind the reader of the medieval lovers Abelard and Heloise. Moreover both pairs of lovers face difficulties and opposition from family. They experience the joys of love and suffer because of it. These parallels however, should not be overestimated, Rousseau is not retelling an old story and Julie's life is quite different from that of Heloise. The story has numerous twists and turns and many surprises along the way. Other characters interact with the young lovers write letters to them and to each other. Gradually over the course of a long novel one begins to care about these people. It is here that Rousseau's skill as a writer is most evident. I found myself emotionally involved in the story of Julie and St. Preux in a way which was quite unexpected. By the end I had felt much joy and not a little sorrow and had been touched by a novel that can bring forth tears. The epistolary form works very well, and is used cleverly, even if sometimes a letter is so large it could scarcely fit into an envelope. It has to be said however, that this novel is difficult. It has to be read carefully as it continually refers itself back to previous letters, which means that one is constantly re-reading previous passages. Sometimes it is necessary to read a paragraph over again in order to fully understand it. This is not a novel that can be skimmed, but must be savoured and read over a period of weeks. This fact should not discourage anyone from reading Julie, for it is as rewarding as it is challenging. If it is hard, it is also a pleasure. The edition of Julie published by the University Press of New England is scholarly and a stunning achievement. The translation of Philip Steward and Jean Vaché is the first full translation into English since the 18th century. It reads well and seems both accurate and fluent. There are over seventy pages of notes, which I found both essential for my understanding of the novel and interesting in the way they expand and explain the various obscure references in the text. Stewart writes a relatively short introduction, which is cl