La nouvelle Héloïse

Description

Classics Collection edited by Michel Zink and Michel Jarrety Jean-Jacques Rousseau La Nouvelle Héloïse A young tutor, Saint-Preux, falls in love with his pupil, but their passion is quickly thwarted by Julie's father, who forces his daughter to marry M. de Wolmar. At first so desperate that he considers suicide, Saint-Preux travels, then returns much later to Clarens, on the shores of Lake Geneva, to stay with Mr and Mrs de Wolmar and their children, whom he tutors. Like Julie's, his past love seems to have faded - but it will resurface.

Upon its publication in 1761, La Nouvelle Héloïse was a huge success - and it was a groundbreaking work. While many of the topics addressed by the characters give this epistolary novel a philosophical tone, it is also the story of a certain family happiness, of a harmonious and peaceful life centred around Julie. But above all, it is a great love story in which paper characters come alive as if they were flesh and blood, and in which the sensual passion of Julie and Saint-Preux proves devastating: their story is also one of the fragility of strong souls.

Jean M. Goulemot edition.