"New Heloise" J.J. Rousseau as a work of sentimentalism

Publishing house Marc-Michel Rey[d]

"Julia, or New Heloise"(fr. Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse) - a novel in letters written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1757-1760. One of central works literature of sentimentalism, which gave rise to a fashion for “rural taste” and Swiss landscapes.

The second part of the title refers the reader to the medieval love story of Heloise and Abelard, which is similar to the fate of the main characters of the novel, Julia d’Etange and Saint-Preux. The novel enjoyed enormous success among its contemporaries. In the first 40 years, “Nouvelle Héloise” was officially reprinted 70 times, a success that no other French work had. literature XVIII century.

Plot

Saint-Preux, a gifted young man of humble origin, works in an estate on the shore of a Swiss lake as a home teacher to the daughter of Baron d'Etange and, like the medieval Abelard, falls in love with his student, Julia. She reciprocates his feelings and even gives him the first kiss. She understands that cohabitation without marriage cannot be approved by her parents, and her father will never approve of a marriage with a person of lower status (after all, he had long ago identified his old friend de Volmar as her husband).

Yielding to her feelings, Julia becomes increasingly closer to Saint-Preux and agrees to nightly dates with him. When Saint-Preux, in his temper, challenges another admirer of the girl, my Lord Edward, to a duel, Julia reconciles the enemies, and they become best friends. The old baron, having learned about their connection, forbids his daughter to meet with Saint-Preux. My lord takes his friend to distant lands, not allowing him to say goodbye to his beloved. Nevertheless, they continue to correspond. The discovery of the correspondence by Julia's mother turns into such unrest for her that she goes to an early grave. In a fit of repentance, Julia accepts an offer to marry the venerable Volmar.

A few years later, Saint Preux returns to the estate from a trip around the world. He sees Julia de Volmar surrounded by her two sons. Volmar, a respected man of high merit, invites him to take up the education of the latter. Saint-Preux hopes to become just a friend for Julia, but deep down he doubts how possible this is. Julia, saving her son who fell into the river, catches a cold. Her cold turns out to be fatal. In her last letter to Saint-Preux, she admits that all her life she has loved only him, and thanks fate for saving her virtue from new trials.

Main characters

History of creation

Sophie d'Houdetot, the prototype of Julia in the novel "New Heloise"

Composition of the novel

The novel consists of 6 parts. The title page contains an epigraph in Italian taken from Petrarch's sonnet on the death of Laura:

The title of the novel is followed by the subtitle: “Letters from two lovers living in small town at the foot of the Alps. Collected and published by J.-J. Rousseau." Thus, Rousseau gave greater credibility to the story being told, acting not as a writer, but as an acquaintance of the heroes, who collected and published their letters.
A few days after the novel's first publication, on February 18, 1761, Rousseau separately published a "Second Preface" to the novel, written in the form of a dialogue between author and publisher.
The Paris edition of 1764 added a "List of Letters" with summary each of them. Rousseau himself did not take part in this, but later approved the idea, and in complete editions in novels it is usually included.
“Subjects of Engravings” became a standard part of the publications, in which Rousseau describes in detail the plots and requirements for the execution of all 12 engravings for the first edition.
On the contrary, from the publications during his lifetime, Rousseau excluded the inserted novella “The Love Story of My Lord Edward Bomston”, since he considered that it contradicted in its tone general style novel and the “touching simplicity” of its plot. The novella was first published after Rousseau's death in the Geneva edition of 1780.

Success

Marie Antoinette's Versailles farm

The New Heloise contributed to the spread of the Rousseauian cult of rural life. Yes, the French queen

Julia, or New Heloise (novel by J. J. Rousseau)

J.-J. Rousseau. Marble bust. Unknown French master of the 18th century.

In 1756, Rousseau began work on the novel “Julie, or the New Heloise” (“Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse”, 1761). This novel became the pinnacle of the literature of French sentimentalism. Rousseau asserts in art a new hero - a plebeian, endowed with a rich spiritual world and extraordinary sensitivity. This is the hero of the novel Saint-Preux, who serves as the teacher of Julia, the daughter of Baron d’Etange. Saint-Preux and Julia fell passionately in love with each other. We learn about this from their letters: Rousseau uses the form of the epistolary novel, which allowed the writer to show the feelings of the characters from the inside. This, on the one hand, gave the novel a lyrical character, and on the other, significantly expanded the possibilities of psychological analysis.

The conflict of the novel is dual in nature: on the one hand, it lies in the contradiction between natural feeling and social conditions; on the other hand, in the contradiction between the same feeling and the demands of enlightened Reason. The sentimentalist Rousseau claims that the first contradiction leads a person to vice (parts 1-3 are devoted to revealing this idea); the second - to Virtue (which is discussed in parts 4-6).

That is why the beginning of the work is so different from its ending. As the subject of analysis changes, the world in which the characters live also changes. Speaking about the social obstacles that stood in the way of Feelings, Rousseau puts into the letters of his heroes an angry condemnation of the laws of feudal society. The second half of the novel paints a picture of an idyllic life against the backdrop of beautiful nature. Here Rousseau's positive program is outlined, anticipating the ideas of the Social Contract. Society must combine the successes of civilization with natural laws, moderate needs, virtues and, thus, become “second nature” for man.

In the first part (the largest, including 65 letters), the writer depicts the love of Saint-Preux and Julia as an explosion of natural feelings. The feudal system of evaluation interferes with the pure relationship of lovers human dignity. Julia's father found out that she loves a simple teacher. The Baron forbids his daughter to see Saint-Preux and wants to marry her to one of his noble friends. The position of the heroes reminds them medieval history the love of the philosopher Abelard and Heloise: the lovers were separated and could only pour out their feelings to each other in letters (hence the name of the novel “The New Heloise”). Julia and Saint-Preux, having forgotten the moral prohibitions that previously protected the purity of their love, become lovers. Bad feelings appear in the heart of Saint-Preux, first of all jealousy, not restrained by reason. He challenges the Englishman Edward Bomston to a duel, suspecting that Julia is not indifferent to him. And only Julia’s selflessness and the nobility of my Lord Bomston stop the dangerous and senseless quarrel. The first part of the novel ends with the departure of Saint-Preux at the insistence of Julia.

View of a corner of Paris at the end of the 18th century.

The central episode of the second part is Saint-Preux's stay in Paris. This part is constructed as a “novel of corruption,” that is, the story of the moral decay of man under the influence of urban civilization. Saint-Preux becomes acquainted with a secular lifestyle and makes bad acquaintances. He commits actions that he later has to repent of. Julia's inner life in this part is revealed in less detail. However, from her correspondence with Edward and cousin It is clear to Clara that she, too, is on the verge of reckless actions and is seriously discussing the idea of escaping with Saint-Preux from her parental home to England.

The third part is a turning point in the novel. Julia's mother dies. Julia believes that the death blow was dealt to her mother by the letters from Saint-Preux that she found. She decides to break with Saint-Preux and marries Monsieur de Wolmar, her father's friend. This middle-aged man is distinguished by restraint and prudence. He fell in love with Julia, “however, this passion is so even, so restrained - one might say that he loves because he strives to love, and he strives to love because reason dictates so.” The description of the even, calm happiness of Julia and Volmar opens the second half of the novel, in which Rousseau moves from the actual to the desired, from the reality of Paris to the idyll of Lake Geneva.

In the fourth and subsequent parts of the novel, the depiction of the characters’ feelings is of a typically sentimentalist nature. These are feelings ennobled by enlightenment and reason, gentle but moderate. The passions of the heroes obey the laws of nature. This is how the description of feelings among sentimentalists differs from the image of passions among pre-romanticists. The image of Mr. de Wolmar becomes central in revealing the sentimentalist concept of feeling. Julia confesses to her husband her former love for Saint-Preux. It turns out that Volmar knew about this even before his marriage, but, as a noble man, he did not demand confessions from his wife. Moreover, Volmar invites Julia to invite Saint-Preux to become the teacher of their children. If in Volmar Rousseau sought to show a person who had already achieved prudence and moderation, then the images of Julia and Saint-Preux show the path to this state.

The climax of the novel is letter XVII of the fourth part, in which Saint-Preux describes to my Lord Edward Bomston his walk with Julia along Lake Geneva and the surrounding mountains. The image of nature plays a huge role in this episode. Rousseau was the first to attach paramount importance to landscape in the novel. He became the founder of the lyrical landscape. Rousseau's picture of nature is entirely permeated with the feelings and moods of the characters. And among these feelings, the “sense of nature” that Rousseau cultivates in his readers becomes special, independent, but permeating all others. The fifth part of the novel is the most idyllic. Joy family life Julia and Volmar, the tender friendship of the heroes is overshadowed by only three circumstances: the disbelief of Mr. Volmar, who denies the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, bad dream Saint-Pré, who sees Julia on her deathbed, and love story my Lord Edward, which may end in a disgraceful marriage. But Saint-Preux upsets Edward's marriage, Edward frees Saint-Preux from his nightly fears, and the idyllic atmosphere reigns again. This part is very important for understanding Rousseau's approach to creating his characters. Neither Saint-Pré nor Julia are exceptional individuals. Their sensitivity, desire for happiness in love, virtue are natural qualities, which means they are inherent in everyone. That is why the other characters surrounding the main characters differ from them only in some individual qualities, but they are all similar to each other in the main thing. Rousseau believes that only corrupt people live according to the law formulated by Hobbes: “Man is a wolf to man.”

In the sixth part of the novel the denouement comes. Yulia, saving her son who fell into the lake, becomes seriously ill and dies a few days later. In her last letter to Saint-Preux, she admits that she still loves him: “Virtue, which separated us on earth, will unite us in eternal life. In this sweet expectation I will die. What a blessing that at the cost of my life I buy the right to love you with eternal love, in which there is no sin, and the right to say last time: "Love you".

Thus, at the end of the novel, Rousseau finally removes the contradiction between natural feeling and virtue, but it is obvious that their harmony will come only in other world. This is consistent with Rousseau’s religious views: not recognizing the Catholic Church and its teaching about God, he believed in some higher being, in the immortality of the soul.

“Julia, or the New Heloise” is a lyrical and philosophical novel, full of enormous ideological content. Problems of love and virtue, nature and society, social inequality and spiritual nobility, urban civilization and rural idyll, problems of the moral and artistic content of the arts, education, etc. found a profound interpreter in Rousseau.

Roman had incredible success. Readers wept over all sensitive places, and when they reached the scene of Julia’s death, according to a contemporary, they “no longer cried, but screamed, howled like animals.” During the 18th century, the novel went through over seventy editions, far ahead of all other works of French literature of that time. "Julia, or the New Heloise" - the most popular work in France in the second half of the 18th century, despite its rejection by classicists (including Voltaire).

Text: Rousseau J. J. Oeuvres complètes: v. 1-4. P., 1959; in Russian lane - Rousseau J. J. Works: In 3 volumes. M., 1961. T. 2.

Lit.: Vertsman I. E. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. M., 1976; Lukov Vl. A. Russo // Foreign writers. Part 2. M.: Bustard, 2003.

Vl. A. Lukov

Stages literary process: New time: XVIII century, Age of Enlightenment. — Works and heroes: Works.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Julia, or the New Heloise"

“I observed the customs of my time and published these letters,” the author writes in the “Preface” to this philosophical and lyrical novel.

Small Swiss town. The educated and sensitive commoner Saint-Preux, like Abelard, falls in love with his student Julia, the daughter of Baron d'Etange. And although the harsh fate of a medieval philosopher does not threaten him, he knows that the baron will never agree to marry his daughter to a man of no birth.

Julia responds to Saint-Preux with equally passionate love. However, brought up in strict rules, she cannot imagine love without marriage, and marriage without the consent of her parents. “Take vain power, my friend, leave the honor to me. I am ready to become your slave, but to live in innocence, I do not want to gain dominance over you at the cost of my dishonor,” Julia writes to her lover. “The more I am fascinated by you, the more sublime my feelings become,” he answers her. Every day, with every letter, Julia becomes more and more attached to Saint-Preux, and he “languishes and burns,” the fire flowing through his veins “nothing can extinguish or quench.” Clara, Julia's cousin, is the patron of lovers. In her presence, Saint-Preux tears a delightful kiss from Julia’s lips, from which he will “never recover.” “Oh Julia, Julia! Is our union really impossible? Will our lives really flow apart and are we destined for eternal separation?” - he exclaims.

Julia learns that her father has assigned her a husband - his longtime friend, Monsieur de Wolmar, and in desperation calls her lover to her. Saint-Preux persuades the girl to run away with him, but she refuses: her escape “will plunge a dagger into her mother’s breast” and “distress the best of fathers.” Torn by conflicting feelings, Julia, in a fit of passion, becomes Saint-Pre's mistress, and immediately bitterly regrets it. “Not understanding what I was doing, I chose my own death. I forgot about everything, I thought only about my love. I slipped into the abyss of shame, from where there is no return for a girl,” she confides in Clara. Clara consoles her friend, reminding her that her sacrifice was brought to the altar pure love.

Saint-Preux suffers - from Julia's suffering. He is offended by his beloved's repentance. “So, I am worthy only of contempt, if you despise yourself for uniting with me, if the joy of my life is torment for you?” - he asks. Julia finally admits that only “love is cornerstone all our lives." “There are no bonds in the world more chaste than the bonds true love. Only love, its divine fire, can purify our natural inclinations, concentrating all thoughts on the beloved object. The flame of love ennobles and purifies love caresses; decency and decency accompany her even in the bosom of voluptuous bliss, and only she knows how to combine all this with ardent desires, but without violating modesty.” Unable to fight passion any longer, Julia calls Saint-Preux for a night date.

The dates are repeated, Saint-Preux is happy, he revels in the love of his “unearthly angel.” But in society, the unapproachable beauty Julia is liked by many men, including the noble English traveler Edward Bomston; My lord constantly praises her. Once upon a time men's company Sir Bomston, flushed with wine, speaks especially passionately about Julia, which causes sharp displeasure in Saint-Preux. Julia's lover challenges the Englishman to a duel.

Monsieur d'Orbe, in love with Clara, tells the lady of his heart about what happened, and she tells Julia. Julia begs her lover to refuse the fight: the Englishman is a dangerous and formidable opponent, moreover, in the eyes of society, Saint-Preux has no right to act as Julia’s defender, his behavior can cast a shadow on her and reveal their secret. Julia also writes to Sir Edward: she confesses to him that Saint-Pré is her lover, and she “adores him.” If he kills Saint-Preux, he will kill two people at once, for she “will not live a day” after the death of her lover.

The noble Sir Edward, in front of witnesses, apologizes to Saint-Preux. Bomston and Saint-Preux become friends. The Englishman takes the troubles of lovers with sympathy. Having met Julia’s father in society, he tries to convince him that marriage ties with the unknown, but talented and noble Saint-Preux do not at all infringe on the noble dignity of the d’Etange family. However, the Baron is adamant; Moreover, he forbids his daughter to see Saint-Preux. To avoid a scandal, Sir Edward takes his friend on a trip, without even allowing him to say goodbye to Julia.

Bomston is outraged: the immaculate bonds of love were created by nature itself, and they cannot be sacrificed to social prejudices. “For the sake of universal justice, such abuse of power should be eradicated; it is the duty of every person to resist violence and promote order. And if it were up to me to unite our lovers, contrary to the will of the cantankerous old man, I would, of course, complete the predestination from above, regardless of the opinion of the world,” he writes to Clara.

Saint-Pré is in despair; Julia is confused. She envies Clara: her feelings for Mr. d’Orbe are calm and even, and her father is not going to oppose his daughter’s choice.

Saint-Pré breaks up with Sir Edward and goes to Paris. From there he sends Julia lengthy descriptions of the customs of the Parisian world, which do not at all serve to the honor of the latter. Succumbing to the general pursuit of pleasure, Saint-Pré cheats on Julia and writes her a letter of repentance. Julia forgives her lover, but warns him: it is easy to step on the path of debauchery, but it is impossible to leave it.

Unexpectedly, Julia's mother discovers her daughter's correspondence with her lover. The good Madame d’Etange has nothing against Saint-Preux, but, knowing that Julia’s father will never give his consent to his daughter’s marriage to a “rootless tramp,” she is tormented by remorse that she was unable to protect her daughter, and soon dies. Julia, considering herself to be the culprit of her mother’s death, meekly agrees to become Volmar’s wife. “The time has come to abandon the delusions of youth and deceptive hopes; I will never belong to you,” she tells Saint-Preux. "O love! Is it possible to take revenge on you for the loss of loved ones!” - exclaims Saint-Preux in a sorrowful letter to Clara, who became Madame d'Orbe.

Reasonable Clara asks Saint-Preux not to write to Julia anymore: she “got married and will do happy man decent, who wished to unite his fate with hers.” Moreover, Madame d’Orbe believes that by getting married, Julia saved both lovers - “herself from shame, and you, who deprived her of honor, from repentance.”

Julia returns to the bosom of virtue. She again sees “all the abomination of sin,” a love for prudence awakens in her, she praises her father for placing her under the protection of a worthy husband, “endowed with a meek disposition and pleasantness.” “Mr. de Wolmar is about fifty years old. Thanks to his calm, measured life and spiritual serenity, he retained his health and freshness - you wouldn’t even give him a look of forty... His appearance is noble and attractive, his demeanor is simple and sincere; he speaks little, and his speeches are full deep meaning", Julia describes her husband. Volmar loves his wife, but his passion is “even and restrained,” for he always acts as “his reason tells him.”

Saint-Pré sets off on a circumnavigation of the world, and for several years there is no news of him. Having returned, he immediately writes to Clara, informing him of his desire to see her and, of course, Julia, for “nowhere in the whole world” did he meet anyone “who could console loving heart»…

The closer Switzerland is to the village of Clarens, where Julia now lives, the more worried Saint-Preux is. And finally - the long-awaited meeting. Julia, exemplary wife and mother, introduces Saint-Pré to her two sons. Volmar himself accompanies the guest to the apartments assigned to him and, seeing his embarrassment, instructs: “Our friendship begins, these are the bonds dear to the heart. Hug Julia. The more intimate your relationship becomes, the better opinion I'll talk about you. But when you are alone with her, act as if I am with you, or in front of me, act as if I am not with you. That's all I ask of you." Saint-Pré begins to comprehend the “sweet charm” of the innocent friendly relations.

The longer Saint-Pré stays in the Wolmars' house, the more respect he develops for its owners. Everything in the house breathes virtue; the family lives prosperously, but without luxury, the servants are respectful and devoted to their masters, the workers are diligent thanks to a special reward system, in a word, no one “gets bored from idleness and idleness” and “the pleasant is combined with the useful.” The owners take part in village festivities, are involved in all the details of farming, lead a measured lifestyle and devote great attention healthy eating.

Clara, who lost her husband several years ago, heeding the requests of her friend, moves to the Volmars - Julia has long decided to start raising her little daughter. At the same time, Monsieur de Wolmar invites Saint-Preux to become a mentor to his sons - boys should be raised by a man. After much mental anguish, Saint-Preux agrees - he feels that he will be able to justify the trust placed in him. But before he begins his new duties, he goes to Italy to visit Sir Edward. Bomston fell in love with a former courtesan and is going to marry her, thereby abandoning his brilliant prospects for the future. Saint-Pré, grown tall moral principles, saves his friend from a fatal step by convincing the girl, for the sake of love for Sir Edward, to reject his proposal and go to a monastery. Duty and virtue triumph.

Volmar approves of Saint-Preux's action, Julia is proud of her ex-lover and rejoices at the friendship that unites them “as an unprecedented transformation of feelings.” “Let us dare to praise ourselves for the fact that we have the strength not to stray from the straight path,” she writes to Saint-Preux.

So, quiet and cloudless happiness awaits all the heroes, passions are banished, my Lord Edward receives an invitation to settle in Clarens with his friends. However, the ways of fate are inscrutable. While walking younger son Yulia falls into the river, she rushes to his aid and pulls him out, but, having caught a cold, falls ill and soon dies. In your last hour she writes to Saint-Preux that her death is a blessing from heaven, for “thereby it saved us from terrible disasters” - who knows how everything could have changed if she and Saint-Preux had again begun to live under the same roof. Julia admits that the first feeling, which became the meaning of life for her, only took refuge in her heart: in the name of duty, she did everything that depended on her will, but in her heart she is not free, and if it belongs to Saint-Preux, then this her torment, not her sin. “I thought I was afraid for you, but I was undoubtedly afraid for myself. I lived many years happily and virtuously. That's enough. What joy do I have to live now? Let heaven take my life, I have nothing to regret about it, and even my honor will be saved.” “At the cost of my life I buy the right to love you with eternal love, in which there is no sin, and the right to say for the last time: “I love you.”

In a small Swiss town, the philosopher Saint-Preux falls in love with the baron's daughter and at the same time his student, Julia d'Etange. The girl reciprocates his feelings, but both know that their love has no future. The baron will never give his youngest daughter to a man without a title and fortune. Saint-Pre's feeling for the girl simply burns from the inside, under the pressure of his passion they become lovers. Julia is horrified by her action, because her father has already chosen the venerable Mr. Volmar as her wife. She can only tell her sister Clara about everything, who helps the lovers meet secretly.

Once at a ball, the traveler Eduard Bomston allowed himself to speak very enthusiastically about the beauty and virtue of Julia; the offended Saint-Pré challenged him to a duel. Julia was afraid of the death of her loved one and wrote to Eduard frank letter, in which she spoke about her relationship with the philosopher and asked to cancel the duel. The man developed sympathy for the unreasonable lovers, publicly apologized to Saint-Preux and even tried to convince the baron to allow the conclusion unequal marriage. However, d’Etange was adamant and Bomston took Saint-Preux with him on a trip so that he could take his mind off his unhappy love.

From Paris, Saint-Preux writes a letter to Julia in which he admits that in a fit of despair he cheated on her. The girl forgave him, but warned him against such actions in the future. This correspondence was found by Yulia’s mother. Her weak heart could not stand the worry for her daughter and she died. Tormented by remorse, Julia agrees to marry Mr. Volmar. Her life became calm and virtuous, her adult husband turned out to be both a father and a mentor for her. Clara wrote to San Pre about everything and simply begged her not to disturb Julia anymore.

Saint-Pré went to trip around the world. Returning to his native land, he could not stand it and visited Yulia and her husband. He was pleasantly surprised because he saw a house where peace and respect reigned. Julia became an exemplary wife and mother of two wonderful sons. She seemed to have completely forgotten about her youthful hobby and greeted Saint-Preux very friendly. Monsieur Volmar behaved the same way, who knew the history of his wife, but chose to offer Saint-Preux friendship rather than enmity. Moreover, he expressed the hope that the philosopher would teach his sons. Saint-Pré went to visit Bomston and said he would give an answer later. Arriving a few days later, he learned that a tragedy had occurred in the house. Julia, while saving her drowning son, caught a severe cold and died. Clara gave Saint-Preux a letter in which the girl admitted that she still loved him and was glad of death, which would save her from mental torment.

Julia, or the new Eloise. Philosophical-lyrical novel (1761)

“I observed the customs of my time and published these letters,” the author writes in the “Preface” to his work.

Small Swiss town.

The educated and sensitive commoner Saint-Preux, like Abelard, falls in love with his student Julia, the daughter of Baron d'Etange. And although the harsh fate of a medieval philosopher does not threaten him, he knows that the baron will never agree to marry his daughter to a man of no birth.

Clara, Julia's cousin, is the patron of lovers. In her presence, Saint-Preux tears a delightful kiss from Julia’s lips, from which he will “never recover.” “Oh, Julia, Julia! Is our union really impossible! Will our lives flow apart and are we destined to eternal separation?” - he exclaims.

Julia learns that her father has assigned her a husband - his longtime friend, Monsieur de Volmar, and in desperation calls her lover to her. Saint-Preux persuades the girl to run away with him, but she refuses: her escape will “stab a dagger in her mother’s breast” and “distress the best of fathers.” Torn by conflicting feelings, Julia, in a fit of passion, becomes Saint-Pre's mistress and immediately bitterly regrets it.

“Not understanding what I was doing, I chose my own death. I forgot about everything, thought only about my love. I slipped into the abyss of shame, from where there is no return for a girl,” she confides in Clara. Clara consoles her friend, reminding her that her sacrifice was brought to the altar of pure love.

Saint-Pré suffers from Julia's suffering. He is offended by his beloved's repentance. “So, I am worthy only of contempt if you despise yourself for uniting with me, if the joy of my life is torment for you?” - he asks. Julia finally admits that only “love is the cornerstone of all our lives.” “There are no more chaste bonds in the world than the bonds of true love. Only love, its divine fire, can purify our natural inclinations, concentrating all thoughts on the beloved object. The flame of love ennobles and purifies love caresses; decency and decency accompany it even in the bosom of voluptuous bliss, and only she knows how to combine all this with ardent desires, but without violating modesty.” Unable to fight passion any longer, Julia calls Saint-Preux for a night date.

The dates are repeated, Saint-Preux is happy, he revels in the love of his “unearthly angel.” But in society, the unapproachable beauty Julia is liked by many men, including the noble English traveler Edward Bomston; My lord constantly praises her. One day, in a group of men, Sir Bomston, flushed with wine, speaks especially passionately about Julia, which causes sharp displeasure in Saint-Preux.

Julia's lover challenges the Englishman to a duel.

Monsieur d'Orbe, in love with Clara, tells the lady of his heart about what happened, and she tells Julia. Julia begs her lover to refuse the fight: the Englishman is a dangerous and formidable opponent. Julia also writes to Sir Edward: she confesses to him that Saint-Pré is her lover and she “adores him.” If he kills Saint-Preux, he will kill two people at once, for she “will not live a day” after the death of her lover.

The noble Sir Edward, in front of witnesses, apologizes to Saint-Preux. Bomston and Saint-Preux become friends. The Englishman takes the troubles of lovers with sympathy. Having met Julia's father in society, he tries to convince him that marriage ties with the unknown, but talented and noble Saint-Preux do not at all infringe on the noble dignity of the d'Etange family. However, the baron is adamant.

Saint-Pré is in despair; Julia is confused. She envies Clara: her feelings for Mr. d'Orbe are calm and even, and her father is not going to oppose his daughter's choice.

Saint-Pré breaks up with Sir Edward and goes to Paris. From there he sends Julia lengthy descriptions of the customs of Parisian society. Succumbing to the general pursuit of pleasure, Saint-Pré cheats on Julia and writes her a letter of repentance. Julia forgives her lover, but warns him: it is easy to step on the path of debauchery, but it is impossible to leave it.

Unexpectedly, Julia's mother discovers her daughter's correspondence with her lover. The good Madame d'Etange has nothing against Saint-Preux, but, knowing that Julia's father will never give his consent to his daughter's marriage to a "rootless tramp", she is tormented by remorse that she was unable to protect her daughter, and soon dies. Julia, considering herself to be the culprit of her mother’s death, meekly agrees to become Volmar’s wife. “The time has come to abandon the delusions of youth and deceptive hopes; I will never belong to you,” she tells Saint-Preux. "Oh love! Is it possible to take revenge on you for the loss of loved ones!" - exclaims Saint-Preux in a sorrowful letter to Clara, who became Madame d'Orbe.

Reasonable Clara asks Saint-Preux not to write to Julia anymore: she “got married and will make happy a decent man who wanted to unite his fate with hers.” Moreover, Madame d'Orbe believes that by getting married, Julia saved both lovers - "herself from shame, and you, who deprived her of honor, from repentance."

Julia returns to the bosom of virtue. She again sees “all the abomination of sin,” a love for prudence awakens in her, she praises her father for placing her under the protection of a worthy husband, “endowed with a meek disposition and pleasantness.” Mister de Wolmar is about fifty years old. Thanks to his calm, measured life and spiritual serenity, he retained his health and freshness - you wouldn’t even give him a look of forty... “His appearance is noble and attractive, his demeanor is simple and sincere; he speaks little, and his speeches are full of deep meaning,” - Julia describes her husband. Vol-mar loves his wife, but his passion is “even and restrained,” for he always acts as “his reason tells him.”

The closer Switzerland is to the village of Clarens, where Julia now lives, the more worried Saint-Preux becomes. And finally - the long-awaited meeting. Julia, an exemplary wife and mother, introduces her two sons to Saint-Pré. Volmar himself accompanies the guest to the apartments allotted to him and, seeing his embarrassment, instructs him: “Our friendship begins, these are the bonds dear to the heart. Embrace Julia... The more intimate your relationship becomes, the better opinion I will have of you. But, remaining "Alone with her, act as if I were with you, or in front of me, act as if I were not with you. That's all I ask of you." Saint-Pré begins to comprehend the “sweet charm” of innocent friendships.

The longer Saint-Pré stays with the Wolmars, the more respect he develops for his hosts. Everything in the house breathes virtue; the family lives prosperously, but without luxury, the servants are respectful and devoted to their masters, the workers are diligent thanks to a special reward system, in a word, no one “gets bored from idleness and idleness” and “the pleasant is combined with the useful.” The owners take part in village festivities, are involved in all the details of farming, lead a measured lifestyle and pay great attention to healthy eating.

Clara, who lost her husband several years ago, heeded her friend’s requests and moved in with the Volmars - Julia decided long ago to start raising her little daughter. At the same time, Monsieur de Wolmar invites Saint-Preux to become a mentor to his sons - boys should be raised by a man. After much mental anguish, Saint-Preux agrees - he feels that he will be able to justify the trust placed in him. But before starting his new duties, he goes to Italy, to see Sir Edward.

Bom-ston fell in love with a former courtesan and is going to marry her, thereby abandoning his brilliant prospects for the future. Saint-Preux, filled with high moral principles, saves his friend from a fatal step by convincing the girl, for the sake of love for Sir Edward, to reject his proposal and go to a monastery. Duty and virtue triumph.

Volmar approves of Saint-Preux’s act, Julia is proud of her former lover and rejoices at the friendship that unites them “as an unprecedented transformation of feelings.” “Let us dare to praise ourselves for the fact that we have the strength not to stray from the straight path,” she writes to Saint-Preux.

So, quiet and cloudless happiness awaits all the heroes, passions are banished, my Lord Edward receives an invitation to settle in Clarens with his friends. However, the ways of fate are inscrutable.

During a walk, Julia's youngest son falls into the river, she rushes to his aid and pulls him out, but, having caught a cold, falls ill and soon dies.

In her last hour, she writes to Saint-Preux that her death is a blessing from heaven, for “thereby it saved us from terrible disasters” - who knows how everything could have changed if she and Saint-Preux had again begun to live under the same roof.

Julia admits that the first feeling, which became the meaning of life for her, only took refuge in her heart: in the name of duty, she did everything that depended on her will, but in her heart she is not free, and if it belongs to Saint-Preux, then this her torment, not her sin. “I thought I was afraid for you, but, undoubtedly, I was afraid for myself. I lived many years happily and virtuously.

That's enough. What joy do I have to live now? Let heaven take my life, I have nothing to regret about it, and even my honor will be saved.”

“At the cost of my life I buy the right to love you with eternal love, in which there is no sin, and the right to say for the last time: “I love you.”

Bibliography

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Julia calmly accepts the thought of death, sensing that eternal bliss awaits her in heaven and eternal love. Conclusion. The novel "Julia, or the New Heloise" is considered the first " an ideological novel"in French literature. And that's why. In the image of Julia (as well as many other characters), Rousseau depicted his ideal woman, his views on her behavior and actions. No one before him could do this...

She calls Saint-Preux and, in a fit of passion, becomes his mistress. After some time, the girl bitterly regrets her rash act. San Pre himself suffers, watching the bitterness of his beloved. But Julia is unable to fight passion, so she again calls Saint-Preux on a date. Their meetings are wonderful, but one day Saint-Preux hears an English traveler, Edward Bomston, in a male company...

They develop naturalness in the child, instill a sense of freedom and independence, the desire to work, respect his personality and all useful and reasonable inclinations. 3 Specific views on culture Jean-Jacques Rousseau entered the history of the French Enlightenment as a unique, original thinker who contributed to the awakening and preparation of 18th-century France for the anti-feudal revolution. It is clear...

His preference for everything “average”, ordinary. Thus, the heroes of his novel are not characterized by either physical or moral superiority; in their ordinariness they are like “the best prints of a print” (Rousseau). Every social quality is measured, according to R., by the degree of approximation to the level of a “normal” or “natural” person, that is, a person unspoiled by civilization. In this norm or “normality” R., ...

The author wrote two prefaces to “The New Heloise” - one short, one and a half pages long, the other long, in the form of a dialogue between the author and the supposed critic. The short preface stuns us with the statement: “ Big cities spectacles are needed, corrupt peoples need novels... Why don’t I live in that century when I should have put them to the fire!”

Strange declaration! Why was it necessary to write another novel, thereby aggravating the moral corruption of peoples? A paradox in the mouth of everyone, but not Jean-Jacques Rousseau. One should become familiar with his complex, largely contradictory worldview, at least in general terms.

He described his rough, difficult, sometimes painful life with a pen genius artist in the autobiographical book “Confession,” which sheds light on many mysterious places the work lying before the reader. From this book we learn: born in 1712 into the family of a watchmaker, Rousseau spent his childhood and youth in Geneva; It was in the engraving workshop that he first realized how bad it was to be “a pitiful apprentice from the poor quarter of Saint-Gervais.” He left the workshop and experienced a bitter feeling of humiliation when hunger forced him to put on the livery of a footman. In the house of the woman who sheltered him, Madame de Warens, he got the opportunity to read good books. Here he stayed for more than ten years, then went to Paris in 1711 and soon attracted the attention of figures of the Enlightenment, among whom were Voltaire, Montesquieu, Holbach, known throughout Europe, as well as Diderot and d'Alembert - publishers of the famous "Encyclopedia", where and Rousseau soon began writing articles about music. However, he disagreed with the enlighteners in their views on society as a whole and the spiritual life of an individual.

Rousseau’s treatise “On the influence of the arts and sciences on morals” (1750), as well as his treatise “On the origin of inequality among people” (1754), were addressed not only to the two ruling classes, but also to the educated elite of the third, and the meaning of this address is approximately as follows: If you, gentlemen, believe in the universal, saving power of progress for the entire human race, then why do trade, industry, science, art serve parasites drowning in luxury, while workers - the overwhelming majority of every nation - are deprived necessary funds to existence? Telling how inequality between people arose and deepened, and with it oppression, despotism, slavery, Rousseau idealizes the most elementary forms of life and work, right up to the era of savagery, which knew no temptations of civilization. The Enlightenmentists, who also invented implausibly sane savages for their philosophical stories, did not agree with Rousseau when, out of a desire to exalt the poorest strata of the third estate, he glorified ignorance. But extreme judgments sometimes excite the mind more than strictly balanced ones; the paradoxical conclusions of Rousseau, who seemingly completely crossed out the values of culture, worried the social thought of that time, and of later times as well.

In the sphere of politics, Rousseau's thought is especially decisive. Comparing Switzerland with France, he more often praised than condemned the system and morals of the former - a bourgeois republic for him is always better than a feudal monarchy, although in hometown he sees the inequality of fortunes and rights, the antagonism of rich and poor. Observing in 1737 civil war between the government and the people, he “was seized by the first impulse of patriotism, which was aroused in [him] by the uprising of Geneva in arms” (“Confession”, book 5). Already in his youth, his imagination imagined a noble spectacle of freedom, “a picture of equality, unity, meek morals,” but he considers it a “delusion” that he “saw all this in his homeland.” Republican Rousseau is a fully formed democrat who rejects the possibility of persuasion and logical arguments to induce those in power - be it the monarch and the nobility, or the Council of Two Hundred and the Small Council of the bourgeois patriciate - to give up at least a fraction of their privileges. In relation to those in power, Rousseau is uncompromising, while the enlighteners paid tribute to the illusion of “enlightened absolutism”. In the treatise “On social contract"(1761) Rousseau proceeds from a certain “general will” of civil society, from the principle of harmony of interests, only guessing about the class struggle; He imagines the republic of the future as a kingdom of equality and moderate, mutually agreed upon needs. Although this turned out to be practically impossible, the treatise of Rousseau, who formulated the idea of popular sovereignty and the right of the people to overthrow tyrants, is one of the pinnacles of political thought of bourgeois democracy, in any case, the most revolutionary work of that time.

But this is not all Rousseau. When in France and Switzerland parliaments, bishops, and the Calvinist consistory spoke out against his ideas, which were declared to threaten the foundations of order, and his former fellow encyclopedists—from whom Rousseau, however, himself renounced—attributed to him the intolerable character of an eccentric misanthrope, he began to think about "terrible ghostliness human relations", from which he increasingly runs to the "creator of sweet nature." Not the nature that serves as the field of action of a savage or Robinson, but that which surrounds us as soon as we leave the noisy streets of the city; not to that unfriendly god portrayed by the pastors of all churches, but to the Comforting Friend, whom intermediaries in the person of the clergy only alienate from us. Jean-Jacques's own spiritual life amazes him, on the one hand, with its mysterious power, on the other hand, with his defenselessness in the face of harsh reality, which offends him at every step. A champion of spiritual simplicity and moral chastity, Rousseau is always humane and sociable, and in “Confession” and “Walks of a Lonely Dreamer” he gives the impression of either falling into melancholy or being a proud individualist. In fact, speaking about his successes, about the glory achieved and openly flaunting his sins and mistakes, Rousseau lets us know that they are redeemed not so much by his unique originality, which is higher than inherited nobility, but by the great social and moral truth that he suffered through. and which it now bears to people, to all humanity.

By offering us a kind of anti-aesthetics, hostile to all arts without exception, Rousseau rightfully brands his own piece of art. It is puzzling why they should have worked on it; Another question also arises, a much broader one: Rousseau’s contribution to the cause of the “moral corruption” of humanity is by no means limited to the “New Heloise” alone. Well, Rousseau is not unarmed against such a reproach and deflects it from the alleged critic with the code name N in the second preface to his novel: “Reread the “Letter on Spectacles” and reread this collection,” says the critic. “Be consistent or give up your views...” This refers to the fact that, despite the “Letter to d’Alembert” (1758), where the theater is declared the most harmful, most immoral institution, Rousseau composed funny plays, librettos and music for operas , - his musical comedy“The Village Sorcerer” (1752) was staged at court, and the king himself admired it. One could remind Monsieur N of Rousseau’s other “sins”: the monodrama “Pygmalion” (1770), poems, verses, romances, an allegorical fairy tale.

In words - one thing, in deeds another? No, and Rousseau invites us to think again about the “Letter on Spectacles”, as well as the preface to the comedy “Narcissus” - there he explained his point of view. We know it from Rousseau’s treatises, and from some of his letters to friends: in the distant era of savagery, when people lived in the forests, there was no art, no laws, no government, and then life was free, simple, good. Now, in the conditions of civilization, people need them like old people need crutches; the wheel of history cannot be turned back. So let them all serve virtue; this is quite possible with the consciousness of civic responsibility. So the “New Eloise” - let’s return to the first preface - is risky to offer to innocent girls, but this novel will guide women who “have retained at least the desire for decency” on the path of truth.