The Confessions

Claude Anet was a botanist and scientist who lived with Madame de Warens and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as detailed in Book V. Anet was a serious and dutiful man with a keen interest in medicines and plants. He and Madame de Warens had a sexual relationship, and he also helped her manage her finances and household. Rousseau studied with Anet and learned a great deal about math and nature from the scientist. Once, after an argument with Madame de Warens, Claude Anet overdosed on opium and was found by Warens, who helped Anet recover.

During a trip in the mountains in pursuit of a rare plant, Anet was overcome with pleurisy. He was unable to escape the symptoms and died in Madame de Warens’s home. Rousseau felt that he must fill Claude Anet’s role as her caretaker but found himself lacking in the seriousness and financial responsibility needed to fulfill his duty.

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher and writer who had a close relationship with Jean-Jacques Rousseau during the 18th century. Diderot was a prolific writer, and his works, which challenged accepted thoughts about politics and religion, shocked French society. Rousseau introduced Diderot to many important figures in French society, and the two men highly valued their friendship.

However, their philosophies diverged. Rousseau spoke out against Diderot’s glorification and attention to the mechanical arts, and Diderot publicly retaliated. Rousseau claimed that Diderot slandered his name and exposed many of the secrets that he confided to Diderot.

Isaac Rousseau was Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s father and an important figure in his life. He was an expert clockmaker, well known for his work. He pursued his wife, his childhood sweetheart, and Jean-Jacques claims that their love was strong. A few days after Jean-Jacques was born, Isaac Rousseau’s wife died from a postpartum infection. His relationship with his sons changed. He treated his oldest son with contempt and abused him, causing the boy to run away, never to be heard from again. He coddled Jean-Jacques, who believed his father saw in him the tragedy of his mother’s death.

Isaac read to Jean-Jacques and instilled in him a love for knowledge and learning. After running away from a duel, Isaac was destined for prison. He escaped Geneva and lived in exile, leaving his son to be cared for by his brother-in-law. Later, when Jean-Jacques ran away from Geneva, Isaac looked for him. When Madame Warens told him that Jean-Jacques left to convert to Catholicism, Isaac gave up his pursuit. He believed this was because his father had a new family and was able to collect Jean-Jacques’s inheritance while he was out of the country.

Madame d’Épinay was a fashionable woman in French society in the 18th century. Her husband had numerous affairs, and Madame d’Épinay was able to secure a separation of their finances. She was an important figure in society and entertained many important guests, writers, and philosophers, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

D’Épinay’s relationship with Rousseau was particularly intimate. One day, while they were walking together, Rousseau pointed out a small cottage and declared that he would like to live there. Madame d’Épinay remodeled the home, furnished it, and gifted him the opportunity to live there. He stayed at d’Épinay’s cottage for seven years before she moved away to Geneva. Her alliances with Rousseau’s enemies, including Diderot, severed their relationship.

Madame de Warens was married to Sebastian-Isaac de Loys de Villardin at the age of 13. She later left her husband and begged King Victor Amadeus II to protect her. He took pity on her and provided her with a pension, with the understanding that she would care for new converts to Catholicism. Rousseau was sent to Warens as a teenager after he fled Geneva, and he became infatuated with her. The two developed a mother-son relationship that later became sexual in nature.

Rousseau describes returning to Warens to find that she had absconded to Paris on secret business. He soon reunited with her, and the two lived for years as mother and son. Their relationship shifted when Rousseau was in his early 20s, and they became romantic partners. When Rousseau left to find a cure for his illness, Warens developed a relationship with another man. Rousseau felt rejected and replaced and could no longer stay with her.

As a young boy, Rousseau was sent to Mademoiselle Lambercier and her husband for religious instruction. They were a Calvinist family, and Rousseau stayed with them for two years. He worried about disappointing Mademoiselle Lambercier, whom he admired as a mother figure, and he sought to earn her favor. On those rare occasions when he needed punishment, Lambercier utilized corporal punishment, which Rousseau found sexually arousing.

Mademoiselle Lambercier, after realizing that her discipline did not produce the desired results in the young boy, soon stopped using corporal punishment and no longer allowed him to sleep in her bed. Rousseau believed that these encounters with his patron influenced his own sexual desires and, although he never had the courage to ask his sexual partners to engage in an exchange of dominance and power, he found this type of interaction significant in his approach to sexual relationships.

Thérèse moved with her mother to Paris to find employment around 1744. There, she met Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He became enamored of her; he believed her to be innocent and quiet, attributes he also assigned to himself. He set Thérèse up as his lover and provided for her and her family. Rousseau vowed that he would never marry her, and he criticized her intellect and mannerisms, claiming that she was unfit for public society.

Rousseau fathered five children with Thérèse. He forced her to give up each child, and the scandal spurred him to write Confessions. When Rousseau died, Thérèse cared for him and became his sole inheritor. Throughout his travels, Thérèse joined Rousseau. Although he often felt that her feelings toward him cooled, whenever the two reunited, they felt a renewed affection for one another.