ROUSSEAU JEAN JACQUES Émile; ou De lÉducation 4 vols 1762

Sale 2162 - Lot 150

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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000

[ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES.] Émile; ou, De l'Éducation. 5 engraved plates by Charles Eisen and others. [2], viii, [2], 466, [6]; [4], 407, [1]; [4], 357, [1] (of [3]), [361]-384; [4], 455, [1] pages, including half-titles in all volumes but the first, apparently as issued; Volume 3 lacks blank Z4. With the 4 cancels in Volumes 1 and 2 as usual. 4 volumes. 8vo, contemporary mottled calf gilt with morocco lettering pieces, spine ends and cover corners worn, short crack at top of Volume 4 front joint; some foxing on plates offsetting onto adjacent leaves, scattered marginal foxing elsewhere, few small holes along platemark of plates in Volumes 3 and 4, bookplate removed from front pastedowns, lacks front free endpaper in Volume 1 and rear free endpaper in Volume 3. The Hague: Jean Néaulme [i. e., Paris: Nicolas-Bonaventure Duchesne], 1762

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first edition of Rousseau's enormously influential pedagogical novel, a classic in the literature of education. "Émile seeks to trace the natural development of a human being away from the nefarious influence of contemporary social life. From this point of view the work is not just a manual of education but, as Rousseau himself points out, a treatise on the goodness of human nature. It is less concerned with laying down the practical details of a specific pedagogic method than with describing the fundamental principles which underlie the whole of man's development from infancy to maturity" (EP). The book was banned shortly after publication for religious unorthodoxy, in particular its denial of original sin. Although the book was typeset first in duodecimo format and then re-imposed in octavo, the octavo edition was the first to be published; for a detailed account of the printing history see McEachern, pages 15-17. McEachern 1A; EP VII, 221.