Les Confessions

2 octavo volumes of: I/ (2) leaves, 471 pp.; II/ (2) leaves, 279 pp., 300 pp.
Marbled Havana calf, cold-stamped fillet framing the boards, spine with raised bands, decorated, title and volume labels in red and green morocco, gilt fillet on the edges, marbled edges. Period binding.

190 x 122 mm.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Followed by the Reveries of the Solitary Walker.
Geneva, 1782.

Rare first edition of the Confessions (books I to VI) and theReveries of the Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Dufour, 340; Tchemerzine, V, 562-563; Rahir, Bibliothèque de l’amateur, 622.

“The first part (I–VI) was published in Geneva by the Société typographique; of the three editions for which it was responsible in the same year, 1782, priority most likely belongs to the separate edition ‘in large characters’, in two volumes, ‘The Confessions of Jean-Jacques R., followed by Reveries of the Solitary Walker’, Geneva, 1782 ” (Dictionnaire J.J. Rousseau).

“The most recent work by Mr. Gagnebin (Bibliography of the Confessions in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade) allows, among the numerous editions published in the same years, to distinguish as follows the original edition of the Confessions:

The ornament on the titles represents an urn, the woodcut headpiece at the beginning of each volume’s text is a landscape, and the tailpieces are either groups of houses or a sphere pierced by an arrow.

A counterfeit, quite close in collation to this original edition, can easily be recognized by the detail that the ornament on the titles, instead of being an urn, is a rose. Furthermore, if the collation of volume I is identical to the original, the text of volume II contains 280 + 295 pages numbered, instead of 279 + 300.” (Tchemerzine).

The second volume of this copy indeed contains 279 and 300 pages.

The two volumes of this copy, bound at the time at the publisher, lead us to believe that this counterfeit could be a second impression of the original, since the title ornament of the first volume is here a rose, while the second volume’s ornament is indeed an urn. Thus, we have the first volume as a second impression or counterfeit, and the second volume as a first impression of this very rare original 1782 edition printed in large type, in two volumes, in Geneva.

The Confessions, “the first great autobiography of modern times” (P. P. Clément, Dictionnaire des Œuvres), comprises 12 books and was published in two parts: the first 6 books in 1782 and the rest in December 1789, but in quarto format.

There is thus no separate original edition of all 12 books of the Confessions in an identical format.

“In this book, the author makes without reservation the general admission of his faults, without, however, separating them from the history of his time. That is why we might call them Memoirs. But, deep down, he aspires less to confess than to portray himself, in order to justify himself. By showing himself to his fellows ‘in the truth of his nature’, he believes he is at the same time making an essential contribution to the history of man.

By his own nature, Jean-Jacques forever stands in opposition to his era: an era saturated with artifice, which cultivates scarcely anything beyond pleasure, boredom, and lack of feeling.”

This precious edition presents the Reveries of the Solitary Walker in first edition.
It is extremely rare.

The ten Walks that compose the Reveries were written day by day, without any predetermined order, at the whim of meetings, meditations, and memories.

All French Romantic poets were influenced by Rousseau, from Lamartine’s Poetic Meditations to Victor Hugo’s Autumn Leaves.

Of all of Rousseau’s works, this is the one closest to us, the one that best seems to remain the author’s true masterpiece.

This first edition of the Reveries of the Solitary Walker is rare and highly sought after when preserved in its period binding.

A precious copy preserved in its charming period binding.

Provenance: Le Comte de Carbonnières’ handwritten ex libris on the title pages.

Louis François Élisabeth Ramond, Lord of Carbonnières, Baron Ramond and of the Empire (1755–1827), was a French politician, geologist, and botanist considered one of the first explorers of the high Pyrenean mountains. He discovered German Romantic literature, especially Goethe’s *The Sorrows of Young Werther* (1749–1832), which led him to take up writing. In 1777, he published *The Last Adventures of Young d’Olban*. He became passionate about the high mountains.

He served Cardinal Louis René Édouard de Rohan (1734–1803), Prince of Rohan and Cardinal-Archbishop of Strasbourg, famous for his involvement in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. To improve his knowledge of natural history, he attended Jussieu’s courses at the Jardin du Roi. He also turned to politics and was elected deputy for Paris to the Legislative Assembly in September 1791. He belonged to the Feuillants club. He passionately supported La Fayette’s efforts to calm the Jacobin fervor. Threatened, he took refuge in the Pyrenees, spending much time plant collecting and making geological observations. Arrested in 1794 and accused of being an enemy of the Revolution, he was imprisoned in Tarbes and narrowly escaped the guillotine.

Between July and November 1804, Louis Ramond de Carbonnières visited the Ermenonville Forest and paid respects at Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s cottage.