The solitary self

In this third and final volume of his masterly biography, Maurice Cranston traces the last tempestuous years of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's life.

From his brilliant authorship of the Confessions, the Dialogues, and the Reveries to his controversial religious views, from his notorious public quarrel with David Hume in England to his clandestine return to France, from his unsettled wanderings to his death in 1778 - these and other critical events in Rousseau's most embattled years are detailed in this sympathetic yet balanced portrait.

In 1762, with the condemnation of Emile and The Social Contract harried by both church and state, Rousseau fled Paris, seeking refuge in Neuchatel and England. Deemed a social outcast and beset by feelings of persecution and abuse, not wholly unwarranted, the philosopher turned in despair to the production of autobiographical works intended to reveal his essential innocence and integrity.

Through this bitter introspection, Rousseau transformed his solitude into some of the most enduring literature of his time.