as he wrote. He fell deeply in love with Mme d'Houdetot the friend of Saint-Lambert.1 Here was a subject made to his hand. His story was to be the love of Saint-Preux a plebeian for Julie d'Étange in station above him. After a brief period of fiery passion SaintPreux in the interest of Julie's honor and happiness must set out on a long exile while Julie to meet her father's wish and obligation must wed M. de Wolmar. At Wolmar's invitation Saint-Preux returns to live in a bitter-sweet friendship by the side of her whom he had loved. This incongruous and strained situation was seemingly what the author would have preferred in the Saint-Lambert, d'Houdetot, Rousseau relation. In spite of the breaks with his friends which were to supervene, little of the bitterness of those later years penetrates to the story in which Jean-Jacques was so entirely absorbed. Completed in 1758 and published in February 1761, the novel proved to be the most popular and in point of literary influence the most important of the eighteenth century. More than fifty editions were printed in a time when successful romances counted three or four. Copies could not be printed rapidly enough to satisfy the demand and lines were formed before the circulating libraries which rented them at ten sous an hour. The beauties of the mountain and lake scenery of Switzerland had as yet generally passed unrecog1 On this subject see Ritter's account Annales J. J. R., Vol. II, 1906, pp. 1-136. 2 For a list of the editions of the Nouvelle Héloïse see the studies by Mornet in Annales J.-J. R., Vols. V (1909), pp. 1-118, Vol. IX, pp. 67-80. nized. Rousseau's novel brought crowds of tourists to the shores of Lake Geneva, who visited Clarens and Meillerie as places of pilgrimage and followed the course of the story, book in hand. The reasons for this success and influence were in the main three; Rousseau's treatment of sentiment, of nature, and of the rural or "simple" life. It would be a mistake to believe that the Nouvelle Héloïse introduced the novel of sentiment. It had long been in vogue and its popularity had recently been increased by the translations of Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe and Grandisson with which Rousseau was familiar. It was not the subject so much as the treatment which was new. We have seen that as the result of a fortunate juncture of circumstances Rousseau wrote with an impassioned sincerity that carried with it a new accent of depth and conviction. Racine in his Phèdre for instance was interested in passion, but more particularly in its effects and in the psychological analysis of these troubled states of soul. Marivaux had expressed the subtleties of the affections with rare finesse. Richardson contains long passages of sentiment interspersed with much moralizing. Rousseau was not interested in passion's effects or its analysis, nor in subtleties nor moralizing. He was making passion as such the object of artistic expression, and it was the force and feverish sincerity of this expression which he contributed to the history of romanticism... As to Rousseau's attitude toward nature there is likewise much confusion. Contrary to general belief he did not excel in detailed descriptions as such. He cannot be compared in this respect to Senancour or Wordsworth. Sheer description of nature furthermore was nothing new. Thomson's Seasons (17261730) for instance is almost pure description. Rousseau rarely presents a clearly outlined vista, his language is not often "picturesque" and it will be noted that he is sparing in his use of metaphor. Rousseau's contribution lay in his presenting not the outward aspect but the sense of nature, not nature as something to be seen but nature as something to be felt. With him it became one of the factors in his story, a living thing. Into the life of the characters the life of nature is, if not subtly, at least deeply "interfused." Nature is not merely a sounding board for the poet's emotions, it is a part of them. The story of Saint-Preux and Julie can no more be separated from Switzerland than Lamartine's love can be separated from Le Lac. This fusion of nature and personality is to be a characteristic of the great French romantic poems and will be found not only in Le Lac but in Hugo's Tristesse d'Olympio and Musset's Souvenir. Nature as a factor in a story, as an element of the plot and not the setting will of course be found again in Chateaubriand and George Sand. The third point, the glorification of the rural or simple life calls for but little explanation. It was a part of that revolt against convention which is central to Rousseau's work, and students of English literature are familiar with its effects on Wordsworth's theory of life as well as his theory of art. Indeed this phase of Rousseau's influence was most marked outside of France, and Wordsworth, Thoreau and Emerson have no counterparts in French literature unless Senancour is to be so considered. The romantic poets did, to be sure, make a noisy war upon literary conventions and the style noble and they did employ the mot propre, but the deeply grounded Latin tradition of eloquence persisted save perhaps in Musset, and it was to be a full century before poets like Paul Verlaine and prose artists like Anatole France and Romain Rolland, wearied of this overlong tradition of a hollow literary decorum, finally took rhetoric out behind the barn and "wrung its neck." IN THE BOSQUET DE JULIE (Julie has fallen in love with her tutor Saint-Preux. With her friend Claire (l'inséparable cousine) she has discovered in her walks a grove (le bosquet de Julie) and Julie agreed with Claire that they were to bring Saint-Preux to the grove and on his entrance each of the cousins would greet him with a kiss.) De Saint-Preux à Julie Qu'as-tu fait, ah! qu'as-tu fait, ma Julie? tu voulais me récompenser, et tu m'as perdu. Je suis ivre, ou plutôt insensé. Mes sens sont altérés, toutes mes facultés sont troublées par ce baiser mortel. Tu voulais soulager mes maux! Cruelle! tu les aigris. C'est du poison que j'ai cueilli sur tes lèvres; il fermente, il embrase mon sang; il me tue, et ta pitié me fait mourir. (For Rousseau's description of the writing of La Nouvelle Héloïse the student is referred to the extract appearing under the Confessions, pp. 186-193. On this subject cf. Vreeland, Etude sur les rapports littéraires entre Genève et l'Angleterre. Geneva, 1901.) 5 O souvenir immortel de cet instant d'illusion, de délire et d'enchantement, jamais, jamais tu ne t'effaceras de mon âme; et, tant que les charmes de Julie y seront gravés, tant que ce cœur agité me fournira des 5 sentiments et des soupirs, tu feras le supplice et le bonheur de ma vie! Hélas! je jouissais d'une apparente tranquillité; soumis à tes volontés suprêmes, je ne murmurais plus d'un sort auquel tu daignais présider. J'avais dompté 10 les fougueuses saillies d'une imagination téméraire; j'avais couvert mes regards d'un voile et mis une entrave à mon cœur; mes désirs n'osaient plus s'échapper qu'à demi; j'étais aussi content que je pouvais l'être. Je reçois ton billet, je vole chez ta cousine; nous 15 nous rendons à Clarens, je t'aperçois, et mon sein palpite; le doux son de ta voix y porte une agitation nouvelle; je t'aborde comme transporté, et j'avais grand besoin de la diversion de ta cousine pour cacher mon trouble à ta mère. On parcourt le jardin, l'on dîne 20 tranquillement, tu me rends en secret ta lettre, que je n'ose lire devant ce redoutable témoin; le soleil commence à baisser, nous fuyons tous trois dans le bois le reste de ses rayons, et ma paisible simplicité n'imaginait pas même un état plus doux que le mien. 25 En approchant du bosquet j'aperçus, non sans une émotion secretè, vos signes d'intelligence, vos sourires mutuels, et le coloris de tes joues prendre un nouvel éclat. En y entrant, je vis avec surprise ta cousine s'approcher de moi, et, d'un air plaisamment suppliant, Sans rien comprendre à ce 30 me demander un baiser. mystère, j'embrassai cette charmante amie; et, tout |